Deserted
by The Queen of Cold
Summary: What if, on the way to an awards ceremony, the ex-contestant's plane crashed on a deserted island? What would they all do when they had to be stuck with each other without the prospect of any prize money? Set two months after All-Stars, With Duncney, Gwent and many others.
1. Turbulence

**Chapter One: Turbulence**

All of the previous contestants stand before their plane, awaiting instructions to board. They're not sure why they're being forced to wait outside in the heat when they could just be waiting inside until their plane is actually ready, but after everything they've all been through on the show, they've learnt to stop questioning strange things. There are stairs leading up to the plane door but Chef Hatchet is blocking them all from entry.

"Can we just get on with it?" Duncan demands. "We kind of have an awards ceremony to get to." He has been temporarily let out of jail specifically for the ceremony, but is forced to wear a tracking device on his ankle so that he can be monitored closely.

"I don't think so, Jail Boy," Chef replies, poking Duncan in the chest. "Chris's orders were to not let you on until he gives permission. Which isn't yet, so shut your mouth up!" Duncan rolls his eyes.

"Can we at least wait inside where we can sit down? My legs are killing me!" Bridgette complains.

"There will be no sitting and no talking!" Chef yells back. Bridgette huffs and folds her arms. They all remain silent as they've been told to do until, finally, Chris appears from inside the plane and begins walking down the stairs.

"Hello my former competitors!" Chris greets them. "How are we all on this fine day?"

"Well now that you mention it..." Courtney begins, but she is cut off by Chris.

"Oh wait, I just remembered, I don't care!" He beams at them all and they glare back. "Thank you all for meeting me here. I know you're all excited to get to the ceremony, so we'll just get straight to it. We've been lent two lovely planes to take us there, but unfortunately after Chef and I claimed the best one for ourselves, the second one seems to only be able to hold twenty people. Due to, you know, legal reasons, we have to supply another plane. I've split you up into the best way I could possibly think of." The ex-contestants all groan. "Your ticket will say which plane you're on. Have fun!"

"But wait, where's the other plane?" Zoey asks. Chris laughs.

"Oh, right, that," he says. "It's just over there." He points in the direction of the old World Tour plane and everyone is hoping they aren't on that one. Zoey looks down at her ticket.

"Oh no!" she cries.

"What's wrong?" Mike asks. She looks up at him.

"I'm on the Death Trap!" she tells him. He smiles at her and takes her hand.

"Me too! At least if we die, we'll die together." She smiles at him sweetly and they head over to the old plane hand-in-hand.

"Oh my gosh Katie, I'm on the dodgy plane! Are you on the dodgy plane?" Sadie says excitedly.

"Totally! Oh my gosh this is going to be so much fun!" Katie replies with the same amount of enthusiasm. They run to their plane, not at all worried about it falling to pieces.

"Yes! I'm on the good one!" Courtney exclaims. "What about you Gwen?"

"I'm on the good one," Gwen snaps at her, walking up the stairs to the plane. Courtney stares after her, mouth agape.

"Me too!" Duncan adds. Courtney glares at him.

"Great." she says shortly and she and Duncan follow Gwen to board the plane.

"Aw man, I'm on that rusty old World Tour plane!" DJ complains. "I had enough trouble on that thing when I was on the show, now I'm risking my life without the chance of a million big ones!" Beth touches his shoulder.

"Don't worry DJ, I'm on that one too! I'll be there if you need someone to freak out with," she offers.

"Thanks Beth, I'm going to need it."

"Is Sam on bad plane with Dakota?" Dakotazoid asks. Sam smiles up at her.

"I sure am!" he replies.

"Me too," Dawn adds. "What about you Scott?"

"Yes," Scott says reluctantly.

"Looks like all of us from Revenge of the Island are on the dodgy one," Jo observes. "Don't wet your pants, Brick! Race you and Lightning to the plane."

"Oh, you're on!" Lightning agrees. Brick nods and they run to the plane.

"Did you know my great great grandfather invented planes?" Staci tells no one in particular. "Yeah, and before him people had to-"

"Oh there is NO WAY I am getting on that scrap heap!" Ann-Maria interrupts. "What if we crash? What about my hair?" Cameron looks at B.

"Care to do the honours?" he asks. B shrugs and picks Ann-Maria up. She kicks and screams in protest as they head over to the plane.

"Eee!" Sierra squeals excitedly, hugging Cody to her chest. "We're on the same plane!" She carries him up the stairs, running because she's so excited.

"After you, fair lady," Harold says to Leshawna, bowing deeply to her.

"Thanks sugar baby!" she says, walking up the stairs.

"Aww I wish I was on the scary plane!" Izzy whines. "I had so much fun on that when we were doing World Tour!"

"I didn't," Owen says nervously. "Do you think this one's a lot safer?"

"Don't worry Big O! I got your back!"

"Yeah, that would make me worry more," Noah says. He and Eva get on the plane and Izzy and Owen follow.

"Thank god I'm not on that crappy old thing!" Heather says, relieved. "There is no way I would get back on that plane."

"But we did have some good times there did we not?" Alejandro reminds her. She shrugs.

"I guess, but I'm glad I don't have to go back there."

"Oh my gosh Tyler, we get to be on the good plane! I can just imagine what it's going to look like inside!" Lindsay says dreamily. "Let's go and check it out!" She runs up the stairs and Tyler quickly follows.

"Right behind you babe!" he calls after her.

"Looks like we get to be together on the good one!" Bridgette says to Geoff.

"We could be on the bad one and I wouldn't care, as long as I was with you," Geoff replies.

"Aw, you're so sweet!" They kiss and head up onto the plane.

"I never realised just how disgusting couples are," Justin comments. Trent nods.

"It's fine when you're a part of the couple, but watching it is kinda gross," he agrees. They board the plane and someone comes along to take the stairs away.  
The inside of the plane is amazing; instead of rows of seats there is a horseshoe leather couch at the back, as well as lounge chairs that recline. There's a mini fridge that provides an assortment of fruits and chocolate as well as beverages. In the centre of the horseshoe couch there is a coffee table with a stack of magazines.

"This place is amazing!" Heather says, taking a seat in one of the lounge chairs. "Oh yeah, I'm not moving for the entire flight."

"I don't know how Chris thought this was the most interesting way to divide up the groups," Gwen comments. "It's pretty much just the new cast in one plane and the old cast in another."

"Who cares? We had to be in that dumb plane for an entire season," Heather reminds her. "As long as I don't have to go on it again, I don't care who I'm sharing a plane with." Everyone takes their seats and the plane takes off.

* * *

"Isn't this exciting Gwen? I hope we win the award," Courtney says kindly.

"Sure, whatever," Gwen replies. Courtney sighs.

"What's your problem? Why are you so mad at me?" Courtney asks. Gwen looks at her.

"You're kidding, right?" she says. "Season five ring a bell? You made a list?" Courtney scoffs.

"Gwen that was two months ago! You're still mad about that?" Gwen stays silent and Courtney tightens her jaw in anger. "You won't forgive me for playing the game and yet you expected me to forgive you for kissing my boyfriend? Fine, I take back my forgiveness. You can fall off a cliff for all I care." She stands up and stalks off to sit next to Heather.

"What's your problem?" Heather asks.

"Gwen doesn't forgive me for playing the game last season so I unforgave her for kissing Duncan," Courtney replies simply.

"I don't get what she's so upset about. I would've done exactly the same thing," Heather says.

"Yeah, that doesn't really help my case," Courtney points out. "But thanks anyway." The plane bumps. "Great, turbulence."

* * *

"If this plane is supposed to hold twenty people how come there are only nineteen of us?" Noah asks. "I mean, not that I'm complaining. The less the merrier. But seriously, wouldn't it make more sense to have as many people in the stable plane as you can get?" Owen doesn't reply, but just cries and kicks his legs.

"Let me off!" he cries. Izzy cackles.

"It's all good Big O! Nothing will happen! This is the good plane," Izzy assures him. "Plus didn't you get over your fear of flying when we did World Tour?"

"No!"

"I don't know why we have to go to this stupid awards ceremony anyway," Eva complains. "I have more important things to do with my time."

"Like what, beat people up?" Noah asks. She growls at him and the plane bumps. Owen starts crying again. "Don't worry buddy, it's just a bit of turbulence. Nothing to worry about."

* * *

Geoff and Bridgette are making out uncomfortably close to Tyler. On the other side of him, Lindsay is going through the magazines trying to find herself.

"Oh look Tyler! There's an article about us!" Lindsay exclaims. She begins reading it and her face falls as she does. "I never said that!" Bridgette and Geoff fall into Tyler's lap. He shoves them off.

"Guys, could you watch where you're going with that?" Tyler complains. Bridgette giggles.

"Sorry man, we'll try and stay out of your way," Geoff says. He and Bridgette start making out again. Lindsay throws the magazine back on the pile.

"You know what? Let's forget about the gossip," Lindsay decides. "Those people don't know anything about us." Tyler smiles at her.

"You're right babe," he agrees. They go in for a kiss but the plane bumps and breaks them apart. Bridgette looks up from her position on top of Geoff.

"What was that?" she asks.

"Nothing babe, just adds to the excitement," Geoff tells her. She smiles seductively at him and they continue to make out.

"Is the plane going tubular?" Lindsay asks.

* * *

"Isn't this so exciting Cody?" Sierra asks excitedly. "You're finally going to be my date at an awards ceremony! I've been dreaming of this moment since the first episode of Total Drama Island." Cody rolls his eyes.

"Sure Sierra, it'll be great," he replies.

"I can't wait for you to see the dress I'll be wearing. You won't be able to resist me!"

"I'm sure. Hey Justin, what are you doing?" Cody asks. Justin is painting his face with some kind of green goop.

"I'm putting a face mask on. I want to make sure I look my best for the crowds when we land," Justin replies. The plane bumps. "And now I guess if we die, I'll still be incredibly attractive." Sierra gasps.

"We could die in each other's arms!" she says to Cody excitedly. "And then when they find our remains our skeletons will be holding each other. Won't that be so romantic?" Cody rolls his eyes.

"It's just a bit of turbulence, we aren't going to die."

* * *

"Hey Gwen, I have a question," Duncan says, sitting in the seat Courtney left. Gwen looks up at him. "What happened between us in All-Stars?" Gwen sighs.

"You're asking me this two months later?" she asks. He shrugs.

"You didn't exactly come and visit me in jail. This is the first chance I've had to talk to you about it," Duncan points out.

"Look Duncan, I don't have anything against you," Gwen says. "I still really liked you when I broke it off, but I couldn't keep being with you when it was clear you were still obsessed with Courtney." Duncan scoffs.

"I'm not still obsessed with Courtney!" Duncan protests. Gwen looks at him disdainfully and he sighs. Trent comes up and sits on the other side of Gwen.

"Hey what are you guys talking about?" he asks.

"The past," Gwen replies. He laughs.

"Let's not go back there, am I right?" he says, taking a sip of the drink he'd just gotten for himself. The plane bumps and he spills it on his crotch. Duncan laughs and Gwen glares at him and he stops. "Well that's just brilliant."

"I'll get you a cloth," Gwen says, and she goes off.

* * *

"I still think I should be the opening act for tonight," Harold is saying to Leshawna. "Or at least the Drama Brothers. We could have been awesome."

"Don't be too offended sugar, some people just don't like your style," she says comfortingly. "But those people don't matter, because I love your beat boxing." Harold smiles up at her.

"Really?" he asks. She nods and he jumps into her lap. "Oh Leshawna, everything you do just makes me love you even more!" Leshawna laughs.

"Don't get too excited honey, we're still just friends," she reminds him. He nods sadly.

"I know, but I still hope that one day you will realise that you're madly in love with me and everything will work out," Harold says. Leshawna rolls her eyes. Harold falls off Leshawna's lap as the plane bumps. He quickly jumps up. "Fear not my love! I'll protect you!"

"Sweetie I think it's just..."

"Ha! Ha!" Harold shouts as he takes a karate stance and hits the air. Leshawna once again rolls her eyes.

* * *

The plane ride is getting bumpier and bumpier, making everyone feel sick as they're jolted around from the force of the wind.

"I wonder if the others are going through this as well," Heather yells over the noise of the storm they're going through as she almost pukes. Courtney scoffs.

"This is ridiculous!" Courtney complains. "We hardly experienced any turbulence with Chef's terrible driving and now we have an experienced pilot and we're being shaken around like glitter in a snow globe!" Gwen rolls her eyes.

"I don't think the pilot has anything to do with it!" Gwen yells.

"WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!" Owen cries. No one bothers trying to comfort him as the plane starts plummeting downwards. They all scream in terror, holding on to anything they can for dear life. After what seems like a lifetime of falling, the plane finally crashes, and nobody moves for a while, thinking that they must have died. Alejandro is the first to get up. Aside from a few scratches on his arms and face, he appears to be fine. He edges his way out of the wreckage and stands up outside of the plane. He looks around, taking in the tropical island they appear to have crashed on.

"Where are we?"


	2. Deserted

**Chapter Two: Deserted**

Alejandro hears the moans of the other contestants as they crawl out from the plane wreckage. He rushes over to give Heather a hand and she takes it.

"Ugh, what is this?" Courtney complains as she brushes herself off. "I thought we were done with near death experiences when we stopped being on that stupid show!" Heather rolls her eyes.

"Right, because the pilot totally crashed on purpose!" she says sarcastically. Trent has Gwen over his shoulder as her comes out from the wreckage. He gently places her on the ground.

"Are you okay?" he asks. She smiles wearily and nods.

"You didn't have to carry me out," she tells him.

"I wanted to make sure you were safe." They smile awkwardly at each other and Heather makes a gagging sound. Sierra comes running out with Cody in her arms. She drops him on the ground and begins to give him mouth-to-mouth.

"Don't worry Codykins! I won't let you die!" she assures him. He splutters.

"Sierra, I'm fine!" he tells her. She gasps excitedly and brings him to her chest in a tight hug. He mumbles something into her chest and she sighs happily. "I know, I love you too."

"Can I get a little help over here?" Duncan calls. His ankle is trapped under one of the wings and he's tugging on his leg to try and get it out. "I'm in a lot of pain."

"How did you even get stuck under the wing?" Harold wonders.

"That's not important, just help me out!" Duncan demands.

"Why are you telling me? I know I'm the bravest one here-" Duncan snorts. "-but I'm not very strong. And even if I could lift the wing, why should I help you?"

"Courtney, you should help him," Geoff suggests. Courtney looks at him in surprise.

"Why? I hate that guy!" she reminds him.

"Because you're the only one with CIT training! Come on, Court, don't let him die in such a horrific way!" Bridgette urges her dramatically. Courtney sighs.

"You're right, of course," she says reluctantly. She walks over to Duncan. "I'm only doing this because I'm nice." Bridgette and Geoff grin at each other. Duncan rolls his eyes.

"Wow, thanks princess, how can I ever repay you?" he says sarcastically.

"You know I could just leave you here to die," she reminds him. He shrugs but doesn't say anything more. Izzy comes running out of the forest and jumps on Owen's shoulders.

"This place is amazing!" she exclaims. "It'll be just like that book, _Lord of the Flies. _I'm Jack, called it! Big O, you can be Piggy! But don't worry, I don't kill you until right at the end." She laughs hysterically and Owen looks at Noah nervously.

"Did she just say she was going to kill me?" he whispers.

"I think so," Noah whispers back. "Just letting you know that if she tries, I won't be able to protect you." Owen gulps in fear.

* * *

"Now what am I supposed to do?" Lindsay whines to Tyler. "I was so looking forward to getting dressed up and having the paparazzi take pictures of me!" Tyler pats her on the back comfortingly.

"I know Linds, you would have looked amazing," he says. "Even more amazing than you look now. Which is hard to beat." She smiles up at him.

"Really? Even though I was crushed by a plane?" she asks happily. He grins and nods, despite the fact that she has cuts and bruises everywhere and her hair is a mess. Compared to everyone else, though, she looks pretty good.

"Absolutely babe," he assures her. "The most beautiful girl as always." She smiles at him and they start making out.

* * *

Courtney is finally able to get Duncan's ankle out from under the wing of the plane, and when she does she sees that his tracking device has been completely smashed and has broken off from around Duncan's ankle.

"Great, our one chance of being rescued and you've managed to ruin it by being crushed in the wrong place!" Courtney snaps at Duncan.  
"How is that my fault? I didn't ask for the plane to land on my ankle!" Duncan shoots back.

"Yeah, well you could have at least tried to avoid it!" Courtney yells. Duncan scoffs.

"Oh really? How? How was I supposed to avoid it?" he demands.

"I don't know, you're the genius!" Courtney shouts. Duncan looks at her, confused.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean? You aren't making any sense!"

"Guys, let's not argue," Geoff interrupts. "If we really want to survive on this island we're going to have to work together. Izzy, can you make another one of those fire starters you made in season one? If we can make a big enough fire, maybe someone will see it and rescue us."

"I don't think so, Geoff," Izzy says. "I don't want to be rescued! There's still so much of the island to be explored!"

"Well can you make one for us to be rescued and you can stay here by yourself?" Bridgette asks. Izzy folds her arms.

"Where's the fun in that?" she says, and she runs off into the forest. Geoff sighs.

"Does anyone else know how to make those fire starters?" he asks. Everyone just shrugs and shakes their heads. Eva storms up to Geoff and pokes him in the chest.

"And who made you our leader, party boy, huh?" she says aggressively. He holds his hands up defensively.

"No one, I'm just trying to get us off the island," he replies. "We can take a vote if you want. Who is okay with me being leader?" Most people put their hands up, but Heather begins to object.

"I think I should be the leader," she says. "After all, I did win a season of Total Drama and therefore I know how everyone's minds work." Courtney scoffs.

"No way! I don't trust you as far as I can throw you," she counters. "I should be leader because I'm the only one with CIT training." Everyone rolls their eyes.

"I think you're all forgetting that we aren't competing anymore!" Duncan reminds them. "We need someone who everyone actually likes and can organise things. Geoff's easy-going, he isn't bossy and demanding, and he hosted that Aftermath show so he knows how to talk in front of a crowd. Just let him have this one." Courtney folds her arms.

"Fine, but I'm not happy about it," she huffs. Duncan shrugs.

"You don't have to be," he replies. Geoff grins at Duncan.

"Thanks for the sweet campaigning, dude," Geoff says. "Okay, first thing's first. We don't know how long we're going to be here, so we should set up some shelter and places to sleep. We don't want to be building when it gets dark. We'll also need a fire."

"Great, so are you going to allocate us all jobs or what?" Leshawna asks. Geoff smiles at her.

"Good question!" he replies. "I think we should all build our own beds and shelter. Does anyone volunteer to build a fire?"

"I'll do it!" Heather volunteers. "Alejandro can build my bed for me, can't you?"

"Anything for you," he says. She smiles.

"Great, that's settled!" Everyone gets up to gather wood and leaves for their beds and shelters, except for Courtney who stands there looking confused.

"What about food?" she demands. "Isn't anyone going to go looking for that?"

"Sure Courtney, you can look for food if you want," Geoff tells her. She huffs and folds her arms.

"Not by myself! Does anyone want to come with me?" she asks.

"Sure, I'll go," Duncan agrees. She ignores him.

"Anyone? Heather?" Heather shrugs.

"I'm making the fire, sorry Courtney," she replies.

"I said I'd go," Duncan tries again, thinking she mustn't have heard him the first time.

"Seriously? What about you Harold?" she asks desperately.

"Sorry Courtney, I'd rather focus on making a bed for myself. I'd love to help but that's just how my priorities are. I'd rather forage in the dark than build in the dark." Courtney sighs.

"Hey princess, I said I'd go with you!" Duncan says loudly.

"I know, that's what I was trying to avoid!" she snaps. He rolls his eyes and they both head into the forest to look for food.

"So, how have things been since the show finished?" Duncan asks casually.

"Don't talk to me unless you find something to eat," Courtney demands. Duncan folds his arms.

"You're still mad at me, huh?" She doesn't answer, but just walks a bit faster. He does the same and falls into step with her. "You can't hate me forever."

"Can't I?" she wonders, picking a flower from a bush as she brushes past it. She starts tugging the petals of one at a time.

"No! I won't let you," he tells her. She raises her eyebrows.

"Won't you?" Courtney questions. She rips the last few petals off more aggressively and walks even faster. Duncan does the same.

"I know I'll be able to get you to like me again," he promises with a smile. Courtney gives a short laugh.

"Will you?" she asks. Duncan sighs.

"Will you stop answering me with two word questions?" he says in frustration.

"Maybe, will you stop pestering me to act like I like you?" she replies, stopping in front of a berry bush and inspecting the fruit. He shrugs.

"You won't have to act if it's how you really feel," he says simply. She turns to him and folds her arms.

"If you think that you can do what you did to me, not apologise, and just come back here expecting me to like you, let me tell you mister, you have another think coming!" Courtney jabs his chest with her finger and turns back to the bush. She decides the berries aren't poisonous and stretches her shirt in front of her to make a sort of basket and starts piling them in. "And you could at least help me!" Duncan does as he's told and shoves as many berries as he can fit in his pockets before he does the same as Courtney with his shirt.

* * *

The other campers find as many fallen branches and large leaves as they can to start building their shelters. Heather has an armful of kindling and some larger sticks to start her fire and Izzy has painted her face to look like tribal markings. She's holding a spear she's made herself and is swinging from tree to tree.

"Do I still pitch a tent like a guy?" Bridgette teases Geoff as they build their shelter together. He smiles at her.

"Nope, you pitch a tent like a really hot chick who's good at building things!" he replies. She grins and pounces on him and starts kissing his neck. He laughs and rolls her over to kiss her on the lips.

"Gross, get a room! Or build one!" Heather says in disgust, digging a hole for the fire to go in. She looks up to see how Alejandro's going and he has already constructed a frame for their shelter. "Looking good, Alejandro!" she calls to him. "You're shelter's alright, too." He looks over at her and winks.

* * *

"Ouch, this branch just gave me a splinter! If only there was some way my shelter could be built without me having to strain myself!" Justin hints loudly. Eva walks over to him.

"I'm almost done mine, maybe I could build yours for you," she offers. Justin smiles at her and she swoons.

"Thanks Eva, I would love that!" Justin says. He sits down in the sand and takes his shirt off to sunbake.

* * *

Sierra is running back and forth from the plane with various bags, throwing them on a pile she has made far away from the wreckage. Cody watches her curiously as he continues to build a very unstable structure

"Sierra, what are you doing?" he asks finally. She stops for a second to reply.

"I'm rescuing everyone's bags," she replies as if it's obvious. "If the plane explodes I want to make sure everyone has their things. Don't worry, yours was the first bag I rescued." She strokes his face gently before running back to the plane.

"I think if the plane was going to explode, it would've done it already," Cody points out. "Plus, isn't it kind of unsafe to go looking through a big pile of broken metal? You could very easily get hurt."

"It's so sweet of you to care about my safety!" Sierra exclaims. "But I think I'll be fine. As long as the plane doesn't..." She doesn't get to finish her sentence as the plane goes up in flames. She sighs.

"That was unexpected," Cody comments. "Now will you come and help me build this shelter?" Sierra nods and quickly grabs some reeds to weave a hammock and a roof.

* * *

"The longer branches need to be put at a 45 degree angle so that it properly covers the bed we'll make," Harold orders. Leshawna rolls her eyes.

"I know how to build a shelter, sugar," Leshawna tells Harold. "You don't have to tell me what to do."

"Hey Harold," Owen calls to him. "Once you're done over there, do you think you could give us a hand?" He and Noah's shelter has fallen over and Noah is crushed between two branches

"I'm always happy to help people with my mad skills," Harold says. "Especially when they can't do things themselves." Courtney and Duncan come out of the forest and are arguing as usual.

"It was Izzy's fault, not mine!" Duncan complains. "If she hadn't been yodelling like a crazy person-"

"You didn't have to take her craziness as a cue to jump on the boar!" Courtney shouts back. "It didn't run away until you started chasing it." Duncan snorts.

"It's not like we had anything to kill it with anyway," he reminds Courtney. "Izzy was the one with the spear."

"Yeah, and with any luck, she kills the pig and then comes back for you!" Courtney yells. She storms off.

"Maybe she will, then I won't have to hear your whiny voice anymore!" Duncan retorts, following her. Leshawna shakes her head.

"Those two are never going to get along, are they?" she says.

* * *

"Hey, did you guys find any food?" Trent asks as Courtney and Duncan walk past.

"Yes, we found berries and mushrooms," Courtney replies shortly. "We also found a boar but Duncan chased it away before we could kill it." Duncan rolls his eyes.

"Whatever, we don't have anything to put these berries and mushrooms in," Duncan points out, getting to an actual problem. Sierra overhears this and comes to join in their conversation.

"Do you want me to weave a basket?" she offers. Courtney smiles at her.

"Sure Sierra, that would be very helpful," she says. Sierra quickly whips one up and Duncan and Courtney empty the contents of their shirts. "If only DJ were here to make something good out of this."

"This was probably all constructed by Chris," Gwen says sourly. "He split us up so that the least helpful people crashed into the island. I bet there are cameras hidden all around, spying on us."

"Maybe it is just some dumb social experiment, but I am _very _helpful," Courtney snaps. "Who just got us all of this food, huh? Sierra is helpful, she just weaved this basket. If anything _you're _the unhelpful one." Gwen scoffs.

"Yeah, and Owen will be helpful. Remember when we had to stay in the forest for a night in season one, and Owen caught all that fish?" Trent adds. Gwen glares at him and he shrugs.

"Whatever, I just can't wait to get out of here," she says.

"Right, because the rest of us are so thrilled to be stuck here with people we hate," Courtney says snarkily, walking off. Duncan goes to follow her but stops as he hears Gwen's voice.

"Not obsessed, huh?" she says. Trent goes back to building the shelter.

"I'm not," Duncan protests, turning back around to face Gwen. "I was just going to help Heather because she's struggling so much." He jerks a thumb in the direction of Heather who is trying to start the fire by rubbing two sticks together.

"Uh-huh, sure," Gwen replies. Duncan folds his arms.

"Like you can talk," he teases. "I guess you're just using Trent for his great survival skills? As long as you have nine of everything I'm sure you'll both be safe." He whips a lighter from his pocket and goes to help Heather. Gwen blushes but Trent is oblivious to the conversation that just took place.

* * *

The ex-contestants all sit around the fire that Heather made with the help of Duncan as they watch the sun go down.

"That fish was really good, Owen," Cody says, swallowing his last bite. Owen smiles proudly.

"Yeah, it took me a while to pry the spear from Izzy, but after she stopped trying to poke my belly with it, catching the fish was easy," he replies.

"Well I'm just glad Courtney and Duncan found those berries and mushrooms. I don't think I could survive on a diet of just fish," Bridgette says. Courtney smiles smugly and Lindsay sighs.

"We could be at the awards ceremony right now, being presented," she says sadly. Tyler puts his arm around her shoulder.

"I have a great idea!" he exclaims. "Why don't we recreate the awards ceremony here?" Everyone looks at him in confusion. "Yeah, Sierra saved almost everyone's things, so we could get all dressed up, the Drama Brothers could perform, and then Geoff could present the award, it'll be fun." Lindsay lights up.

"Oh my gosh, yes!" she says excitedly. "Tyler, you're a genius!" She hugs him tightly and he grins.

"I can't think of anything better to do," Eva says reluctantly, and the others all agree in excitement, then hurry off to get ready.


	3. Glamorous

**Chapter Three: Glamorous**

"Did anyone bring a mirror?" Courtney asks as she plays with her hair and tries to look at herself in the lens of her sunglasses.

"Of course!" Lindsay replies. She pulls a hand mirror out of her bag and holds it in front of Courtney. Courtney pins her hair into a neat bun and checks herself out. "I'm so glad mine was one of the bags Sarah saved. I could not live without my lipgloss and my hair products!" Sierra glares at her.

"It's Sierra, not Sarah," she reminds Lindsay. The girls are all in the forest, not wanting the boys to see them before they're ready. Heather slips on a black cocktail dress and yanks the mirror from Lindsay's hands.

"Hey, I wasn't done with that!" Courtney complains. Heather ignores her and starts to put mascara on her eyes.

"I don't know why you're bothering to dress up," Eva says gruffly. "We're in the middle of nowhere, who are you trying to impress?"

"I don't need to impress anyone, since my sugarpie is already head-over-heels in love with me," Leshawna replies. "But it'll be funny to see his face when I show up out there looking a whole lot more beautiful."

"Geoff and I have kind of lost the romance in our relationship," Bridgette says, kind of sadly. "I mean, we've been together for almost four years! If me getting dressed up doesn't spice things up, I don't know what will.

"How incredibly boring!" Heather says. "I'm only getting dressed up because it'll probably be the last chance I get in a while. Alejandro does enjoy taking me out to dinner, but it really isn't the same."

"Well I'm with Eva on this one," Gwen says, sitting on a rock. "I hate getting dressed up. I'm almost glad mine was one of the bags that got destroyed."

"Me too!" Izzy says excitedly, jumping down from the tree she'd been hanging from. "It meant that I got to make this awesome snakeskin dress!" She does a couple of poses to show it off and the girls make sounds of approval.

"That is so clever!" Lindsay says admirably. "If we're here for a really long time, can you make me one of those?"

"Of course! I've already started on a second one," Izzy replies.

"It's too bad you don't have a nice dress, Gwen," Heather says. "I know that Trent would have loved to have seen you actually looking nice for once. Although maybe it's for the best, we wouldn't want history to repeat itself." Gwen gulps.

"On second thought, maybe it would be nice to get into the spirit... Could you make me a snakeskin dress, Izzy?" Gwen asks hastily. Izzy grins and holds it up.

"Already done!" she cackles. Gwen slips into it. Hers is long and strapless, unlike Izzy's whose is short with a halter.

"This is an incredibly weird feeling," she admits.

"Ugh, what a loser," Courtney says snidely, zipping up her sleek purple strapless dress. It's floor length and has diamantes on the neckline. Gwen glares at her.

"Well why are you dressing up?" she snaps.

"Duh, because I like to look pretty!" Courtney replies obviously. "Plus I know that Duncan still has feelings for me, and this will drive him crazy. If the rest of the night is boring, at least I'll have some form of entertainment."

"You're all stupid," Eva tells them. "I need to use the bathroom." She walks off to go to the toilet.

"Can you imagine Codykin's face when I walk out there in this?" Sierra exclaims, referring to her short silver dress, completely covered in sequins so that it glitters whenever she moves. The girls finish their hair and make up and prepare to show themselves to the boys.

* * *

The boys all stand on the beach awkwardly, most of them wearing their suits except for Noah and Alejandro. Noah's and Geoff's things were destroyed when the plane caught on fire, but Alejandro lent his suit to Geoff since he thought the host needed one more than a guest. They've set up a fallen tree to be the stage for the ceremony and have path of leaves as their red carpet. Geoff has even put tree stumps in groups around rocks to serve as the tables they would have been sitting at. Harold had some pen and paper, and Geoff used this to write out place cards for the seating arrangements.

"So..." Trent says awkwardly. "Nice weather we're having." The rest of the boys raise their eyebrows at him and remain silent. Eva comes out of the forest, still wearing the clothes she was in before.

"Eva, why aren't you dressed up?" Geoff complains.

"Because I don't play by your rules!" she snaps. Geoff holds his hands up defensively. "Anyway, the other girls wanted me to tell you that they're ready." She goes back to join them in the forest.

"Sweet, we can start the ceremony!" he calls out to the others. "Girls, can you hear me?" They all call back various acknowledgements and Geoff begins, holding a stick to his mouth as a microphone and putting on his best host voice. "Hello everyone and welcome to the Desert Island Awards Ceremony, where some of the previous Total Drama contestants will be soon walking up the green leaf carpet." He looks down at the other boys from the 'stage'.

"What's wrong?" Duncan whispers up at him.

"I feel like the girls need to be escorted up the leaf carpet," he whispers back. "If I say your name, just join the girls at the start of the path, okay?" Duncan rolls his eyes but they all reluctantly agree. "Okay, first we have the beautiful, fashionable Lindsay who will be escorted by her boyfriend Tyler!" Tyler joins Lindsay at the end of the 'carpet'.

"You look amazing, Linds," he tells her, smiling like an idiot. She grins back.

"Aw, thanks Tyler! So do you!" she replies. She starts blowing kisses to the imaginary paparazzi.

"Next up we have the Ice Queen herself, Heather, escorted by the equally evil Alejandro!" Alejandro puts his arm around Heather's waist and kisses her on the cheek before walking her down the leaf track. "Next is the ever crazy Izzy and the guy she tried to kill earlier today, Owen!" Izzy jumps out of the forest and Owen edges over to her hesitantly.

"Aw, look at how scared you are!" Izzy says sweetly. "I'm not going to kill you _tonight_! That would ruin a perfectly good evening!" Owen breathes a sigh of relief.

"Now it's time for the luscious Leshawna and her, uh, ginger biscuit, Harold!" Geoff announces, thinking of a name Leshawna had once called Harold. Leshawna bursts out of the forest with very little grace and Harold bows and kisses her hand.

"Ginger biscuits?" Owen says hungrily as Izzy gnaws on his arms.

"You look like a goddess, as usual," Harold tells Leshawna. She smiles.

"Mmm, baby, I know!" she says, leading him up the leaves.

"Give a warm welcome for our favourite stalker Sierra and the guy she's obsessed with, Cody!" Cody barely gets a chance to walk to the start of the leaf path before Sierra scoops him up and runs him to the other end in excitement. "Who's left? Oh, right, you know her from being the most aggressive competitor to ever... uh, compete, it's Eva, and everyone's favourite smokin' hot dude Justin!" Eva storms up the leaf path before Justin gets to take her arm. He walks slowly behind her and waves and smiles at the fans that aren't there.

"This is so dumb," Eva says grumpily. Geoff shrugs in response.

"Having been given probably the most nicknames in the show, I think it's time to present Gwen! A.K.A Weird Goth Girl, A.K.A New Heather, and her date the musician, Trent!"

"_Date?!_" Gwen cries as she steps onto the green leaf 'carpet'. Trent takes her arm and she blushes.

"Relax Gwen, I'm just being theatrical," Geoff reassures her. Gwen and Trent walk down to meet with everyone else. "We're almost at the end now, but first we have the only one who did CIT training, Courtney, who will be escorted by our very own criminal, Duncan!" Duncan's heart leaps as he sees Courtney step out of the forest. He smirks and goes to take Courtney's arm. She pulls away from him and he feels slightly hurt, though he's not sure why. It's not like he expected anything different from her.

"No way!" Courtney protests. "He is _not _my date. I would rather go with _Harold _than this complete jerkface!"

"Stop whining for ten seconds!" Duncan tells her. "I'm walking beside you for five metres, you'll survive." He grabs her upper arm as if taking her to jail and they join the others at the end of the trail. Geoff gives Duncan a thumbs up.

"And now I've saved the best for last," Geoff says dramatically. "We have Noah, I guess or whatever, and the amazing, beautiful Granola Goddess, Bridgette!" Bridgette steps out of the forest and Noah gingerly takes her arm as they walk down the green leaf 'carpet'. "Now that all of our special guests have arrived, I'll ask them to take their seats. There are place cards with your names on them, so to avoid arguments over seating arrangements, I'll ask that you sit at your assigned seat and don't complain about it." The others do as they're told, most of them grumbling quietly about who Geoff has seated them with. "Thank you for your cooperation. To kick off tonight's presentations, I'd like to welcome the Drama Brothers to the stage to perform their hit song! I can't remember what it's called, but I'm sure it's good. Take it away guys!" Trent grabs his guitar and climbs onto the log stage as Geoff steps off. Harold lends his keyboard to Cody and Justin holds two pieces of scrap metal from the plane wreck as if they're cymbals.

"This song is dedicated to all of our amazing girls, who don't see us for who we truly are," Harold announces. "It's called 'When I Cry'." Trent starts strumming on the guitar and Justin joins in with small clangs. Cody presses some keys on the keyboard and Harold begins to sing.

"This song is so bad," Geoff whispers to Bridgette.

"I know, the lyrics are awful!" she agrees. "It is kind of romantic though. If you could sing, do you think you'd write a song for me?"

"Of course babe! You're my, uh, what's the word?"

"Muse?" Bridgette supplies.

"That's the one!" he says smilingly. "You know, I think this night will really pan out well. As long as we don't all kill each other, that is."

"You really did do a good job with this set up." Bridgette praises him. "How did you decide who would be on which table?" Geoff laughs.

"With Chris not here, I figured someone had to play matchmaker, and why not me?" he explains. Bridgette shakes her head in disbelief.

"I don't know whether to be disappointed or impressed. Manipulating our friends?" she says.

"You say that like they haven't been doing it to each other for four years." Geoff grins.

* * *

"I don't know how these four ever got a record deal," Courtney says. "This song mostly doesn't even make sense, and the parts that do are just ridiculous!"

"And I suppose after your Princess Courtney song you expected to get millions of offers to sign you?" Duncan asks.

"At least I would be more deserving!" she snaps.

"I'm with Courtney on this one," Heather agrees. "We got famous by embarrassing ourselves on international TV, not because we were on some lamo talent show."

"Thank you!" Courtney says. "I'm just glad they never got the chance at a second album. This one song is torture enough, I don't even know how they sold any of their first albums."

"As much as I hate to admit it, I have to agree with you two," Leshawna admits. "I love Harold, but he was not destined to be a musician."

"One would think that with a musically inclined person such as Trent in their band their song would be a lot better," Alejandro comments. "Although I'm guessing he didn't have much say in the matter."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Leshawna demands. "That Harold wrote the song and that's why it's bad?"

"I assure you, that's not what I meant at all," Alejandro says defensively. "All I meant was that it was probably written for them by somebody else. You needn't get so worked up, _chica_."

"Oh no you don't!" Leshawna objects. "You played me once mister, don't even try this _chica _business on me. Honestly, I don't know what Geoff was thinking putting me with you four."

"You're telling me!" Courtney agrees. "These seating arrangements don't make any sense!"

"Maybe not to you, but I see a kind of pattern," Heather says. Courtney looks at her, waiting for an explanation. "Like I'd tell you!"

* * *

"This song sucks, how long do we have to sit through it?" Eva wonders angrily. Noah shrugs.

"I thought you liked Justin," he says.

"I don't like anyone, got it?" Eva growls. Noah shrugs.

"This song is the most played on my mp3 player," Owen informs them all. "It's my favourite off the album, but I also really like 'One Million Dollars'. I can really relate to that."

"Oh my gosh I love 'One Million Dollars'!" Izzy exclaims. "I have no idea what the lyrics are but the tune is so catchy!" She starts humming the song enthusiastically.

"Great, now look what you've done," Noah says to Owen.

* * *

"Oh my gosh," Lindsay is saying. She hasn't let go of Tyler's arm at all since they walked up the green leaf 'carpet'. "When Trent comes back to our table, this will totally be like a double date!"

"Yeah, except that Trent and I aren't dating," Gwen reminds her.

"Oh right!" Lindsay remembers. "Why not? You guys are like super cute together!"

"You know, I'm starting to see why Geoff arranged us the way he did," Gwen says. "I guess he decided to take up the position of 'matchmaker' since Chris isn't here." Lindsay gasps.

"Geoff's a matchmaker now?" she asks. "You should go to him!" Gwen sighs.

"No thanks, I already know who he'd put me with," she replies. The Drama Brothers finally go into their last chorus of 'When I Cry'.

"When I cry, my eye is wet," Harold sings softly as the other three slow their music. "And I swear it wasn't guy sweat." The songs finishes with a gentle strum on the guitar and everyone claps politely. Geoff takes his position back on the stage and the Drama Brothers go back to their tables.

"Thanks for that moving performance by the Drama Brothers," Geoff says, clapping again. This time no one joins in. He coughs awkwardly. "Now that the entertainment side is out of the way, let's move on to the presentations. There are five categories and they are: the contestant who is least easy to get along with, the contestant who is most liked, the craziest contestant, the hottest chick, and the hottest guy!" Everyone looks at each other in confusion. Sierra puts her hand up.

"Um, Geoff, what even are these categories?" she asks. Geoff shushes her.

"It's going to be good, I promise!" he assures her. "So first we have the contestant who is least easy to get along with. And the nominees are:" Geoff pulls a leaf from his sleeve and pretends to read it. "Heather, Courtney, Eva, Alejandro and Noah!"

"Excuse me?" Noah complains.

"And the award goes to..." Geoff pauses for dramatic tension. Courtney has her fingers crossed, hoping she can finally win something from this show. "Eva!" Eva looks shocked at this and hesitantly walks up to the stage to accept her award, which is four sticks made into a square with leaves wrapped around it.

"What?" Courtney objects, standing up in outrage. "I should win that award!"

"No kidding!" Duncan agrees. She glares at him and sits back down. Eva takes Geoff's stick microphone.

"I don't want to thank anyone for this award, because that's how I won, by not thanking people or being nice to them at all," she says. She gives Geoff back the stick and stomps back to her seat. Geoff claps slowly.

"Uh, thanks for that, Eva. Next up we have the contestant who is most liked. And the nominees are: Lindsay, Owen, Cody, Leshawna aaaand Trent!" Geoff announces.

"These awards are so rigged," Gwen says under her breath.

"What did you expect? Geoff made everything up himself," Trent whispers back. Gwen smiles.

"I hope you win!" she tells him.

"Aren't we even going to have a vote for these?" Heather complains. "Where is the fairness if you decide who wins all of the awards?"

"Hey, Heather I don't make the rules!" Geoff tells her. She scoffs. "Okay I do, but does it really matter? Let's get on with the ceremony. And the winner is..." He looks at his leaf to pretend to read who the winner is. "Owen!" Owen races up excitedly to collect his award. He shakes Geoff's hand enthusiastically and takes the stick microphone.

"I'd like to thank my mom and dad for raising me right, and all of the other contestants who were such worthy competitors," he says sincerely. "May the rest of you win some kind of award some day!" He scurries off stage with his stick and leaf square and Geoff clears his throat to begin the next category.

"Next up we have the craziest competitor! The nominees are: Izzy, Sierra, Courtney, Trent-"

"Hey!" Trent objects. Geoff ignores him.

"And Heather!" Geoff finishes. "And the winner is obviously Izzy!" Izzy skips up to the stage and takes her award.

"Look at this Big O, now we're awards buddies!" she exclaims.

"Does this mean you won't kill me?" Owen asks nervously.

"Maybe!" Izzy replies. "I'd like to take this opportunity to thank my parents for being so neglectful and letting me play wherever I wanted when I was a kid! I got into some really crazy stuff, I don't really want to get into it at the moment. I'll just cheer for my old high school football team instead! Go Oysters, whoo!" She runs off stage with her award and snuggles up next to Owen.

"Well, uh, thanks for that Izzy, I guess," Geoff says hesitantly. "For the next two awards, I'm not even going to read the nominees, I'd just like to say that the winners for hottest chick and guy is Bridgette and myself!" There are various noises of complaint coming from the audience, everyone believing that they should have one. "Hey guys, calm down! Does anyone have any music we can play or anything?"

"I'll sing for you all!" Izzy volunteers. They all look at each other cautiously but figure it's better than her getting into some kind of trouble. She takes Trent's guitar and he watches her nervously. She begins to play like a sane person and surprisingly sings quite nicely. Trent relaxes slightly and takes Gwen's hand, leading her up to dance. Lindsay and Tyler follow suit and almost everyone gets up to dance along to Izzy's song.

Courtney remains seated, still annoyed that she didn't win either of the awards she was nominated for, even if they were incredibly insulting. Duncan holds his hand out to her.

"May I have this dance?" he asks. Courtney glares at him.

"Yeah right, as if I would want to dance with you," she says snidely. Duncan ignores this comment and drags her onto the 'dance floor'. Courtney is disgruntled but goes along with it anyway. "There are other girls that aren't dancing too you know. Why didn't you ask Eva?" Duncan snorts.

"Because she would no doubt beat me up," he replies. "You look really beautiful tonight."

"Flattery won't get you anywhere," Courtney snaps.

"I'm just trying to be nice," Duncan says defensively. "No need to ruin the night." Courtney scowls and breaks away from Duncan to sit back down. Trent and Gwen dance past him and Gwen raises her eyebrows at Duncan. He glares back at her and walks the opposite way Courtney went to sit with Geoff, Bridgette and Sierra.

"Didn't you like my seating arrangements, man?" Geoff asks Duncan. Duncan folds his arms and Geoff and Bridgette laugh.

"I don't know how you decided who we would sit with but no, I'm not a fan," Duncan replies.

"Not getting anywhere with Courtney, huh?" Sierra says.

"What do you mean?" Duncan asks. Sierra shrugs.

"Well it's kind of obvious that you're still obsessed with her," she says simply.

"Why does everyone keep saying that?" Duncan wonders.

"If you want help getting her back, I have every episode of Total Drama on my phone. You could watch them and see how badly you messed up and how to win her over," Sierra offers. Duncan shakes his head.

"I'm not obsessed with her! Speaking of obsessions, why aren't you dancing with Cody?" he says.

"He went to the bathroom," Sierra replies. Geoff and Bridgette decide this is a good time to get up and dance themselves, leaving Duncan to listen to Sierra go on about Cody.

* * *

"I must be the luckiest man alive, to be the one dancing here with you," Alejandro says to Heather as they gaze into each other's eyes.

"Oh, stop!" Heather says modestly. "But really keep going." They both laugh and Alejandro dips her and kisses her softly.

"You look amazing tonight," he tells her. Heather blushes.

"Well, that's a given. I'm disappointed you aren't dressed up though. I didn't think yours was one of the suitcases that was ruined?" she says.

"I lent my suit to Geoff," Alejandro explains. "I thought it was more fitting for the host to have a suit than one of the guests."

"Ugh, that whole awards thing was ridiculous," Heather complains. "He should have at least made up reasonable awards."

"I, too, think it was nonsense," Alejandro agrees. "You should have won the most attractive female award. But let's not waste our time thinking about that anymore. We should just enjoy the night." Heather agrees and they continue to dance.

* * *

At the end of the night, Duncan, Geoff and Alejandro are all sitting around the fire talking quietly as everyone else has gone to bed. Duncan and Geoff have both changed out of their suits.

"Surely you guys have figured out why I organised the seating arrangements the way I did," Geoff is saying.

"Heather did mention something about you playing matchmaker now that Chris isn't here to do it," Alejandro comments. Duncan looks at Geoff angrily.

"Is that what this is all about? Trying to get me and Courtney back together?" he demands. Geoff smiles sheepishly.

"It's not like you don't want to, man," he says. "I'm just helping things along a little bit. Is that so wrong?"

"Yeah, since I actually don't want to get back with her," Duncan replies.

"I saw you dancing with her tonight," Alejandro reminds him.

"I was just trying to get her to have fun," Duncan says.

"Dude, there was a time when you were with Gwen and you couldn't care less if she was having fun or not," Geoff points out. "In fact, you enjoyed seeing her struggle and get hurt."

"Pfft, what would any of you know anyway?" Duncan says, folding his arms.

"All I know is that whenever I see Heather, it's like no one else matters," Alejandro tells him. "If the way you were looking at Courtney tonight is any indication, you feel the same about her."

"Yeah, what were you thinking when you saw Courtney come out of the forest all dressed up tonight?" Geoff asks. Duncan remembers how his heart had skipped.

"I thought she looked really hot," Duncan lies, knowing it was more than that. "But that means nothing. I've always thought that about her, and I probably always will." Geoff and Alejandro exchange a look. "Hey, what was that?"

"Nothing man, whatever you say," Geoff says unconvincingly. "I'm going to bed, it's getting pretty late." He gets up and Alejandro does the same. Duncan decides there's no point staying up by himself, so he goes to his shelter and lays on his bed. He stays awake for a while longer though, pondering everything Geoff and Alejandro had just said, wondering if maybe he really did still have feelings for Courtney.


	4. Missing

**Chapter Four: Missing**

"Good morning, Princess," Duncan greets Courtney as he gets up. They're the only two awake and Courtney is sitting by the fire, poking it with a stick.

"Is it?" she wonders, raising the flaming stick near her mouth and blowing on it. Duncan sighs.

"Will you stop acting so snarky? I'm trying to be nice!" Duncan says. He sits down next to her as Heather gets up and joins them by the fire.

"Is that what you're doing?" Courtney questions. Heather raises her eyebrows, realising what she's walked into. "I would think someone trying to be nice would apologise for, oh I don't know, any uncalled for actions they might have done that hurt and upset someone."

"Are you kidding me? You're still going on about that?" Duncan asks incredulously. "Courtney it was two years ago for Christ's sake!" Courtney looks at him, hurt.

"Are you kidding _me_?" she asks. "Instead of offering an apology you just accuse me of being unforgiving?" Her jaw tightens.

"You're being unreasonable," Duncan tells her. Courtney gives a short laugh.

"You're right!" she says sweetly. "Instead of being angry at you, I should be taking a leaf out of your book and try to be nice! Would you like me to go find some eggs for you and cook them for breakfast?" Duncan eyes her warily.

"Uh..." he says.

"Oh don't worry! I'm an excellent cook," Courtney assures him. She stands up and brushes down her pants. "What kind of eggs would you like? I'm willing to risk my life to get you whatever you want!" She breaks character and snaps her stick over her knee, throws it on the fire and walks off, glaring at Duncan. Heather hurries to follow her.

"What was that?" Heather demands.

"What was what?" Courtney asks innocently. Heather sighs.

"I know you're still mad at Duncan but you're acting like a child!" she tells Courtney. Courtney whirls to face her.

"How would you recommend I act?" she asks aggressively. "Like he didn't treat me terribly? Like I wasn't hurt over what he did? Like I don't completely hate him?" Heather scoffs and folds her arms.

"No, but you could at least try to be civil," she says. Courtney folds her arms.

"Why should I take any advice from you?" she asks. Heather sighs.

"I know I'm probably the last person you want to listen to, but we aren't playing the game anymore and I'm not going to try and manipulate you for my own good. You're allowed to be mad and you're allowed to act on it, but if you keep acting like the same childish Courtney from Total Drama, you're going to get the same childish Duncan." Heather walks away, leaving Courtney to think about what she'd just said.

* * *

"I would kill for a shower right now," Lindsay complains as Courtney comes back to the fire. Almost everyone is up now, except for Owen and Noah. "It's starting to feel like season one already!"

"We've been here for like, two seconds," Izzy tells her. "There are way cooler things we could be doing!"

"I'm with Lindsay on this one," Justin says. "If I go without a shower for too long, my beauty starts to fade. True story."

"I've got an idea!" Geoff exclaims. "Why doesn't Sierra weave us a bath from the reeds? Then we can boil water to fill it up."

"Yeah, but what are we going to boil the water in?" Duncan points out. "We can't exactly have Sierra weave us a bucket to put on the fire."

"The plane's almost stopped flaming," Tyler tells them. "There might be some scrap we can use to build something."

"Dude, where are all of these good ideas coming from!" Geoff praises Tyler. Tyler grins. "Who's game to go and get some scrap bits of metal?"

"Oh, oh! Pick me!" Izzy volunteers excitedly. She runs to the plane wreck and starts sorting through it. Geoff stares after her in surprise.

"Uh... Okay..." he says, then turns his attention back to the others. "I think it would be a really good idea if we all had our own jobs to stick to, you know?"

"I think I suggested that yesterday," Leshawna reminds him, folding her arms. At this point, Owen and Noah have finally woken up and join the rest of the group by the fire.

"Right you are, Leshawna! And I like that idea, so I think we should stick to it," Geoff says. "So if Heather stays in charge of keeping the fire going, Owen can catch the fish, Duncan and Courtney are the foragers..."

"I don't think so!" Courtney objects. Heather catches her eye and shakes her head, and Courtney withdraws her objection. "I mean, okay, fine." Geoff winks at Duncan and Duncan rolls his eyes.

"What's going on?" Owen asks sleepily. Geoff ignores him.

"Sierra is the official basket weaver," Geoff continues. "Izzy can explore the island to let us know if there's anything dangerous about it."

"What about the rest of us?" Harold asks. "Surely there's something I can do with all of my mad skills."

"Sure Harold, you can be the inventor," Geoff tells him. "You can start off with building something to boil our water in when Izzy comes back with parts and after that you just build whatever we need." Harold smiles and nods in approval. "I guess if we're here long enough, the rest of you will get things to do as well but at the moment I can't think of anything else..."

"Okay, why do we have to listen to you?" Heather wonders.

"We went over this yesterday, Geoff is the only one we can all agree on," Leshawna replies. "And if we don't have a leader, no doubt there will be a lot of things go wrong when we all argue over who should do what." Heather huffs but doesn't reply.

"Well I guess you're all pretty hungry for breakfast, so I'm going to go and look for eggs and whatever else I can find," Courtney announces. "Coming Duncan?" She doesn't wait for a response before heading into the forest. Duncan quickly follows her. Bridgette stands up as well.

"I'm going to see if I can find some sea plants to eat," she tells Geoff. "Maybe that can be my job?" Geoff grins at her.

"Absolutely babe!" he agrees. "We need as much food as we can get, and you are definitely the best swimmer." They share a quick kiss before Bridgette goes to change into her swimwear. Izzy comes back with some scrap pieces of metal and Harold takes them from her to begin constructing a bucket of some kind.

"Is anyone up for an early morning swim?" Trent asks. There are several cries of enthusiasm and they go to get changed. Trent stops when he sees that Gwen isn't moving. "Are you coming?"

"Unless Izzy can make me a snakeskin bikini, I don't think so," she replies reluctantly.

"Just go in your underwear, it's practically the same thing," Lindsay suggests as she rubs sunscreen on her arms. Trent raises his eyebrows at this and Gwen blushes.

"Well, if you find a way I hope you'll join us," Trent says. He heads off to change like the others and Gwen puts her head in her hands.

"What's wrong with me?" she asks Lindsay. Lindsay shrugs.

"I'm not really the kind of person to tell people what their flaws are," she tells Gwen. "But if you ask me, Trent still really likes you." Gwen sighs and goes to her shelter to have a lie down.

* * *

"How's the bucket building going?" Sierra asks Harold as she weaves a bath. Harold is trying to force two pieces of tin together.

"Not so good," he replies. "I don't have any of the required tools for this kind of thing. I need a welder or some screws to hold it all together." He holds the pieces of tin over the fire in hopes that they will heat up enough to melt together.

"Say no more!" Sierra says. She runs to her suitcase and pulls out a pack of screws and a screwdriver. Harold looks at her in shock.

"Sierra, why do you have screws and a screwdriver in your suitcase?" he asks. Sierra shrugs and goes back to her weaving.

"My dad says you never can be too prepared!" she says simply. "How many baths do you think we need?"

"I don't know, maybe two?" Harold suggests. He stops fiddling with the scrap metal and sighs dreamily as he watches Leshawna having fun in the water. Sierra slaps him. "Hey! What was that for?"

"The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can join them," she snaps. "Go and get the coat hanger your suit is on and use it to make a handle. Now!" Harold hurries off to do as he's told and Sierra continues weaving.

* * *

Duncan and Courtney walk in silence through the forest as they look for anything they can eat for breakfast. Courtney stops every now and then to put something in their basket, but Duncan isn't even looking.

"Do you want to play a game?" he asks. Courtney rolls her eyes. "I spy with my little eye something beginning with uptight pain-in-the-ass." He smirks as she turns around to glare at him.

"I don't want to play a game, Duncan," Courtney says. "I want to find some food and go back to the others." Duncan frowns, disappointed that he wasn't able to stir Courtney up. She turns back around and continues her search as Duncan follows behind trying to think of ways to get Courtney to worked up. He picks up a small stone and throws it at her, hitting her shoulder. As she turns around he whistles innocently and pretends he didn't do anything. Courtney glares at him, and Duncan thinks she's going to kill him before she grabs an egg from the basket and hits him in the chest with it. It smashes and they yolk runs down Duncan's shirt. She looks at him smugly as he tries to take in what just happened.

"Oh, that's it!" Duncan says. He grabs some berries from a nearby bush and starts throwing them at Courtney. He hits her a few times before she hides behind a tree and starts looking around for something else to throw. She picks up a few stones at her feet and emerges from her hiding space. They chase each other through the trees, continuing to throw various objects at each other and mostly missing. Courtney runs behind a tree and Duncan follows. He grabs her wrist and brings her back to face him.

"You're not going to get away with this," he tells her. They're both grinning and breathing heavily from the chase.

"You started it," Courtney reminds him. Their faces are so close they're almost touching, and for a moment Courtney thinks Duncan is going to kiss her. Instead he drops her wrist and rubs the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Heh, well, we should get back to finding food, the others are probably waiting for us," he says, as he walks over to the basket Courtney put down before.

"Oh, right," she agrees, slightly disappointed. She takes the basket from Duncan and gives him a small smile before walking on ahead.

* * *

"The first bath is ready!" Sierra announces to those who are swimming. Lindsay hurries out of the water.

"Where is it?" she asks.

"Just inside the forest, through those trees," Sierra replies, pointing in the direction she put the bath in. Lindsay grabs her things and goes to take a bath. Duncan and Courtney emerge from the forest with plenty of food for breakfast.

"Breakfast's up!" Courtney calls. This catches everyone's attention and they all run out from the water to eat. "We'll have to cook the eggs of course, but we have some more berries and mushrooms." She sets the basket down and Bridgette adds some seaweed to the mix.

"I found plenty of this while everyone else was swimming around," she tells them. Heather grimaces at the seaweed and turns to Geoff.

"Okay Geoff, if you're the leader, who's the chef? We don't have DJ or Chef Hatchet," she demands.

"Can anyone here cook?" Geoff asks everyone.

"I'm not as good as DJ but I'm alright," Trent says. Geoff points his fingers at him and Trent smiles. He grabs some of the spare metal Harold didn't use and makes a small grill to put the eggs on. Before long, everyone has finished their breakfast and have gone back to beach activities. Sierra is about to join Cody, Noah and Owen in building a sandcastle before Duncan stops her.

"Hey, can I talk to you for a minute?" he says hesitantly. Sierra beams at him.

"Of course!" she says excitedly. She waits for Duncan to start talking but he takes a while for him to think of how to phrase it. "Could you hurry it up? I'm missing out on sandcastle building with Cody." Duncan sighs.

"Well, the thing is... you know how you said the thing... with the episodes..." he stammers. Sierra understands where he's going and stops him.

"Oh my gosh, yes! I made a fan video of every single Duncney moment, so that will take us less time to get through than sitting through every episode," Sierra exclaims. Duncan raises an eyebrow.

"What the hell is a Duncney? Is that like, some kind of weird toy thing?" he demands. Sierra laughs.

"No, silly! It's yours and Courtney's couple name! Isn't it adorable?" she says happily. Duncan folds his arms, unimpressed. "I'm going to go help with the sandcastle building now, but we can watch the video later okay?" She goes off the join Cody, Noah and Owen.

"Hey Sierra," Cody greets her. "We're having a sandcastle competition. Wanna join?" Sierra's eyes light up.

"Only if I can be on your team!" she says, squeezing Cody in a tight hug. Noah rolls his eyes.

"Barf," he says. "If she's here, I'm out." He stands up and looks around until he spots Eva. "Hey Lady Brawn, want to join me on a walk through the forest?" Eva shrugs and joins him.

"I'm coming too!" Izzy announces. She runs to join them and they head off into the forest.

"Well there goes the competition," Owen says sadly.

"We could just try and make the biggest sandcastle possible," Cody suggests, and Owen and Sierra agree.

* * *

That night, Alejandro leads Heather through the forest. He's blindfolded her, and even though he is holding her hand, she has her other one out in front of her to make sure he isn't leading her into any trees.

"Where are you taking me?" she demands. Alejandro chuckles.

"You'll see," he replies. They finally stop and Alejandro lets go of Heather's hand to untie the blindfold. He drops it and Heather gasps at what she sees.

In a small clearing, Alejandro has created a date-like setting. There is a large tree stump acting as a table with two long candles in the middle. There is a log on either side of the stump as chairs and in front of the chairs are two meals of fish and berries.

"Did you do all of this?" Heather asks in amazement.

"Of course! You didn't think I'd forget our two month anniversary did you?" Alejandro says. He hands her a bunch of wildflowers and leads her over to one of the log-chairs. Heather sits down and puts the flowers on the tree stump table next to her meal. Alejandro starts to eat and Heather just looks at him, her mouth wide open. He catches her staring and grins. "Are you going to eat?"

"I just... I can't believe... you..." her eyes start to well up with tears and Alejandro rushes to her side and wraps his arms around her.

"What's wrong? Do you hate the flowers? Would you have preferred boar instead of fish? I tried catching one but they are too fast," he says. Heather shakes her head which is buried in his shoulder.

"No, nothing like that," she says. She pulls away from the hug and wipes her tears away. "It's just that no one has ever done anything like this for me before. No one's ever... cared about me." Alejandro brushes a stray hair from Heather's face and tucks it behind her ear. He kisses her nose.

"I care," he whispers. She takes his face in her hands and kisses him softly. He kisses her back with the same softness and she wraps her arms around his neck, kissing him more fiercely. Alejandro stands up, bring Heather with him and she throws her legs around his torso. He begins to kiss her neck and lays her on the table, continuing to kiss down her body.

"Wait," she whispers. He looks up at her.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to take it that far," Alejandro apologises. He brushes himself off and sits back down at his seat. Heather sits up, still on the table.

"No, it's not that, it's just..." she starts. Alejandro touches her hand.

"It's okay," he assures her. "You don't have to explain yourself to me. For tonight, let's just eat and enjoy the romance." Heather nods and goes to sit back down. They finish their meals and talk about the competition, laughing at the other contestants. When Alejandro sees that Heather is done, he stands up. Heather looks up at him worriedly.

"That's not the end of the night is it?" she asks. Alejandro shakes his head.

"Of course not," he says. "There is something else I want to do. Trent!" Trent appears from behind a tree and Heather blushes, realising what he must have seen. He sits on the tree stump table and begins to play. Alejandro drags Heather up from her seat and starts to dance with her. She laughs as Alejandro dips her and gives her a quick peck on the lips. He brings her back up close to him so that they're just swaying on the spot.

"Alejandro?" Heather whispers.

"Hmmm?" he says. Heather pauses.

"Thank you."

* * *

Heather and Alejandro come back from their date holding hands. When they come out of the forest, the others are all sitting around the fire. They go to join them and see that Noah, Eva and Izzy still aren't back.

"Where are the three who went exploring?" Alejandro asks as he and Heather sit down. Leshawna shrugs.

"No one's seen them since they left," she replies.

"Maybe they were eaten by bears," Harold suggests.

"No, not Noah and Izzy!" Owen cries. He puts his head in his hands. "My two favourite people on the whole show, gone!"

"Relax, I'm sure they weren't eaten by bears!" Courtney says as if it's the most ridiculous thing she's ever heard. At that moment, Izzy comes running out of the forest and hugs Owen from behind.

"Hey guys! Did I miss anything while I was gone?" she asks excitedly. Everyone stares at her in shock.

"Izzy, where are Eva and Noah?" Justin asks. She shrugs.

"I don't know, maybe eaten by bears? I went off to catch a squirrel and when I came back they were gone!" she replies. "Is that leftover fish?" She grabs the fish still sitting on the grill Trent had made earlier. "Ouch! It's still really hot!"

"Well, no point waiting up if Noah and Eva are dead. I'm going to bed," Courtney announces, and everyone agrees.


	5. Closer

**Chapter Five: Closer**

"I'm getting kind of worried," Justin tells Leshawna as they eat lunch. "Eva and Noah still haven't come back..."

"Didn't you hear Izzy last night? They probably got eaten by bears," she reminds him. "Also, I didn't think you were one for worrying."

"Yeah, you're right," Justin agrees. "I'm as worried as I can be without straining my body. I guess if they did get eaten by bears there isn't much we can do about it now. I'm going to give myself a facial." He gets up and heads for his shelter.

"I can't believe Noah's gone!" Owen sobs to Izzy. She rolls her eyes.

"They might not have even been eaten," she tells him. "We could go and look for them if you want?"

"But what if they _were _eaten?" Owen cries. "If bears are prepared to eat Noah, who has no meat on him, and Eva who is all muscle, what do you think they'd do to me?" He bursts into a fresh round of tears and Izzy pats him on the back comfortingly.

"Duncan and I have been in the forest plenty of times," Courtney tells them all. "The most dangerous animal we've seen is a boar, and boars aren't a threat to humans."

"But maybe you aren't going deep enough into the forest! Maybe the bears are all in the middle, and that's where Eva and Noah went!" Owen worries. Courtney rolls her eyes.

"I've heard enough whining for one day. I'm going to take a nap," she says, and she walks off to her shelter.

* * *

Bridgette is laying in her bed, reading a book when Heather comes up and stands over her with a big smile on her face. Bridgette looks up at her.

"Hey Bridgette!" Heather says happily.

"Hi..." Bridgette says cautiously. Heather sits down on Bridgette and Geoff's bed and Bridgette sits up and puts her book down. Heather sighs.

"You're a nice person, right?" she asks.

"I like to think so..." Bridgette replies, still wary of Heather. "You're not going to try and change that are you?" Heather laughs.

"Of course not!" she assures Bridgette. "It's just, well... I realised that I don't have many girl friends, which I know is my own fault, but I really wish I had someone to share things with and gossip, you know?" Bridgette raises her eyebrow at Heather.

"Are you trying to get me to form an alliance with you?" Bridgette asks. Heather sighs again.

"I don't plan on going on that show ever again," she tells Bridgette. "I just thought you would be the least likely person to block me out. I've never done anything to betray you, have I? Look, I had a really great night last night and I want to be able to tell someone about it and when other things happen I want someone to be excited for me." Bridgette gives Heather a small smile, realising just how lonely she must be.

"Sure Heather, tell me about your night," Bridgette says, and Heather goes into all the details, from the walk through the woods to dancing along with Trent's music. Bridgette reacts to the story as a real friend would, laughing and gasping and 'aww-ing' in all the right places. When Heather finishes talking, she smiles at Bridgette.

"Thanks for being a friend, even if it is only for this moment," she says, getting up.

"Anytime," Bridgette replies. "Now that Geoff and I have been together so long, it's nice to hear about the romantic things other couples do. Not that Geoff was ever much of a romantic in the first place."

"Hey Bridge! We made a windsurfer! I call it Bridgette, after you!" Geoff calls, proving Bridgette's point. He's standing on a log and holding onto a long stick that's attached to what appears to be a weaved sail. Duncan is holding the log, keeping Geoff stable. He lets go and Geoff falls in.

"That's great babe!" she calls back, then turns back to Heather. "And if you ever need anything else, just let me know."

"Well now that you mention it, there is something else," Heather says. "It's kind of an awkward question though..."

"Sure, what is it?" Bridgette asks. Heather hesitates.

"See, the reason I didn't want to go any further with Alejandro last night isn't because I'm not ready or anything," she explains. "It's because neither of us carry around any, uh..."

"Front pocket of Geoff's suitcase, take as many as you need," Bridgette cuts her off, not needing to hear anymore. Heather reaches in and grabs a handful.

"Thanks Bridgette, I knew I could count on you!" she says, then hurries off.

* * *

"This place is so boring!" Lindsay complains. She and Tyler are holding hands while they both sunbake. Tyler is looking longingly over at Geoff and Duncan's windsurf.

"Yeah, totally," he lies, knowing that if he was windsurfing it wouldn't be boring at all. "We could make out," he suggests.

"We do that ALL the time though," Lindsay reminds him. She sits up quickly, having thought of an idea. "Let's go looking for Eva and Noah!"

"Seriously?" Tyler asks, sitting up. "You don't want to make out but you want to go looking for trouble? And possibly get eaten?" Lindsay pulls her towards him and kisses him slowly.

"I can think of something slightly more interesting than just making out that we could do in the forest," she says seductively. This grabs Tyler's attention and he jumps to his feet.

"Alright!" he says excitedly, then his face drops. "But what about getting dirty? The forest will ruin your clothes." Lindsay shrugs as she stands up.

"I'm sure there's a stream or something where we won't get dirty," she says. Tyler grins and they head into the forest holding hands.

Gwen and Trent are sitting nearby and Gwen gags as she watches them leave.

"At least now they're gone we don't have to watch them be all couple-y around us," she says, and they both laugh.

"You're talking like they've already been eaten by bears," Trent observes. Gwen shrugs.

"They practically already have. If that bear ate Eva and Noah, it's going to eat anyone," she replies.

"Yeah, but Duncan and Courtney have gone into the forest like, ten times now and they haven't been eaten yet," Trent points out.

"Can we not talk about Duncan and Courtney?" Gwen says, grabbing a handful of sand and letting it run through her fingers.

"Right, sorry," Trent apologises. They sit in silence for a moment, Gwen still playing with the sand, until Trent brings it up again. "What exactly happened there?"

"I don't know, betrayal? Can we just drop it?" Gwen says angrily. She stands up and walks off. Trent looks over at Duncan, who has seen what just happened and is shaking his head. Trent looks down sadly.

"I always screw it up!" he curses himself.

* * *

"Okay man, that was awesome!" Geoff exclaims, referring to the windsurfing. "It's your turn dude. I don't want you to miss out on this epic ride!" Duncan isn't paying attention to Geoff however, as Courtney has just gotten up from her nap and Duncan is watching her walk over to the fire. Geoff smiles. "If you have something else you want to do, by all means go for it." Duncan looks at Geoff.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" he asks. Geoff laughs.

"Admit it man, you've still got it bad for Courtney!"

"Pfft, no I don't!" Duncan counters. "I just think... I mean, she has nice legs or whatever shut up!" He shoves Geoff and gets out of the water, leaving Geoff to continue to laugh at him. Duncan walks over to Sierra, who is building sandcastles with Cody.

"... and we have to have a white picket fence, that's a must," Sierra is saying. "I was thinking when we have kids we'll have them share a room, to save space. They'll probably get along better that way too, right?" Duncan clears his throat to announce he's there. Sierra and Cody both look up at him.

"Hey Sierra, can I talk to you about... you know... the thing?" he asks. Sierra stares at him blankly for a moment before she remembers.

"Right! Of course!" she says. "Cody, sweetie, can you go play with Geoff? He looks lonely." Cody stays seated.

"But Sierra, I was here first..."

"Now!" Sierra demands. Cody scrambles to his feet and runs to join Geoff. Sierra turns back to Duncan. "Are you sure you want to do this? The video goes for well over an hour and we might not get through it before my battery dies." Duncan nods.

"Yeah, I'm sure," he replies. Sierra gets out her phone and starts the video. They sit through the whole thing silently, and every now and then Duncan cringes at watching himself back. The video plays until Gwen and Courtney make up in 'Suckers Punched' when Sierra's battery goes flat. She sighs and puts her phone in her pocket. Duncan has his head in his hands.

"Well that was pretty much all of it anyway," Sierra says. "After that you got sent to jail and no one really said anything about you." Duncan doesn't say anything, but remains still. "Duncan are you okay?" He lifts his head to look at Sierra.

"I didn't even apologise," he whispers. "I was terrible to her, and I never gave her a sincere apology. She really cared about me. She _trusted _me, and I threw it all away. For what?"

"Well you were with Gwen for two years..." Sierra reminds him.

"Yeah but it wasn't a real relationship," Duncan tells her. "We were still in high school our first year together and we lived on opposite sides of the country, so we never saw each other except in video chats. I don't know, I guess I did love Gwen, but it was always so boring, you know? We always stayed in and played video games and watched movies. Sometimes we'd make out but apart from that, it was just like she was another friend. Courtney and I were always at each other about something and it was exhausting but it was worth it. I miss that. I miss her." He gives Sierra a sideways glance and she has a huge grin on her face.

"Then _tell her_."

* * *

Geoff and Cody have given up on windsurfing and Geoff looks around at everyone lazing around on the beach. It's too hot to do anything but swim, and even that seems to be too much effort for everyone. Geoff claps his hands together loudly once to get everyone's attention. The all look up at him.

"Come on guys, what are you doing, just waiting around for someone to rescue you?" he asks.

"Pretty much, yeah," Heather replies.

"We should be treating this like a vacation! Or a bonding session!" Geoff encourages them.

"Why would we do that?" Harold wonders. "Most of us only talk to each other because we have to. I don't think any of us would feel much of a loss if we never saw each other again." Everyone nods in agreement. Geoff sighs.

"How about a game of volleyball?" he suggests.

"Oh I am up for that!" Leshawna agrees. There are other murmurs of enthusiasm at the idea and Geoff smiles to finally have gotten a positive response from everyone.

"Great! Sierra, weave us up a net. Does anyone have something we could use as a ball?" he asks.

"I have this fake Mr. Coconut I bought on the Total Drama merchandise website," Sierra offers. "It's made of wood but it should work just fine." Everyone looks at her in confusion. "What?"

"Okay... I don't know why you thought you would need that at the awards ceremony but I guess that's not important!" Geoff says. Owen starts to cry again.

"Mr. Coconut! Noah! My two best friends, gone!" he whines.

"Aw come on Sierra, why'd you have to remind him?" Cody says as Izzy puts her arm around Owen's shoulders.

"Owen and I will sit out for this game," Izzy tells Geoff. "I don't think he could really handle throwing things around at this point in time." Geoff nods in understanding and does a quick head count.

"Dudes, why are we missing four people when this morning we were only missing two?" Geoff asks.

"Tyler and Lindsay are doing it in the woods," Gwen informs him, jerking her thumb in the direction of the forest. "Considering what happened to Eva and Noah, that was a terrible mistake on their part."

"Hey, we don't know that they're dead yet," Trent says, trying to be optimistic. "They could just have gotten lost."

"Lindsay and Tyler left three hours ago, Trent," Gwen reminds him. "And I don't think they were going that far in."

"They could still be going," Bridgette chimes in. Everyone turns to look at her. "What? Sometimes me and Geoff..." They all make noises of protest, not wanting to hear about Geoff and Bridgette's sex life.

"Let's not worry about the missing four at the moment," Geoff decides. "We have an odd number of players though, so I'll umpire. So, Heather, Alejandro, Courtney, Duncan, Bridgette and Justin against Cody, Sierra, Harold, Leshawna, Trent and Gwen. Sound good? Good." No one bothers to object to the teams since it's too much effort to argue and they know the teams won't change anyway. "Let's go with Leshawna's serve first." Geoff tosses the coconut to Leshawna and she hits it over the net. Heather is quick to hit it back and Harold jumps up to slam the coconut down. Bridgette slides to hit it back but she misses and the coconut falls to the ground. "One-nil!" Geoff calls.

"Well done, sugar baby!" Leshawna praises Harold. He grins at her.

"I learnt to play volleyball when I was..."

"No one cares!" Heather interrupts. Harold glares at her.

"Was I talking to you? _No_." he shoots back. Justin raises his hand

"You know, Geoff, I would love to keep playing but I'm kind of concerned that the coconut's going to hit me in the face," he tells Geoff. "After all of the abuse I went through in Total Drama Action, I'm not really prepared to go through all of that again. Would it be possible to switch places so I umpire and you play?" Geoff rolls his eyes.

"Fine, we can switch," Geoff concedes. "It's Alejandro's serve." He tosses the coconut to Alejandro and switches places with Justin. Alejandro serves the coconut across the net and Trent tries to hit it back across but ends up hitting Gwen in the head. She falls to the ground on impact and Trent rushes to her side.

"Ow," Gwen says as she sits up, rubbing her head.

"I am so sorry!" Trent says sincerely. Gwen moans and Trent helps her up. "Are you okay?" She glares at him.

"Are you kidding? You just hit me in the head with a wooden coconut!" Gwen snaps. Trent leads her off the court.

"You're right," he says. "I don't think either of us will be playing anymore. I want to make sure she's okay." Harold sighs.

"Well now the teams are uneven!" he complains. Geoff looks up, getting an idea. He goes to the other side of the net.

"I'll switch teams, it'll be fine!" he assures them all. "My serve, called it!" He picks up the coconut and serves it directly at Courtney's head. She falls to the ground much the same as Gwen did.

"Oh come on, you did that on purpose!" Courtney whines, rubbing her head. Geoff smiles guiltily.

"Whoops, sorry Courtney. Maybe Duncan can help you out with your injury," he suggests with a wink a Duncan. Duncan rolls his eyes but goes to help Courtney off the court. "I guess I can go back to my original team now." Geoff switches sides again and Bridgette raises her eyebrows at him, unimpressed. "What, it was an accident!" She rolls her eyes and serves the coconut.

* * *

"I really am sorry," Trent apologises again as he and Gwen sit in the sand. "About before as well, I shouldn't have asked." Gwen gives him a small smile.

"It's okay, really," she tells him. "I would have preferred it if you didn't hit me in the head with Mr. Coconut but it's okay for you to ask. I've just never really talked about the whole thing to anyone. It's kind of a touchy subject."

"I get it, I won't bring it up again," Trent promises. Gwen looks at him.

"If there's anyone I can talk about it with, it's you," she says. "I'll tell you." Trent turns his body to face her as if she's about to tell him a story. She takes a deep breath. "Duncan and I had been together for almost two years, which is by far the longest relationship I've ever been in," she begins. "Which isn't surprising really since my first relationship was with you... Anyway, we didn't see each other much in the first year, but we talked a lot over the internet about the things we liked, and we had a lot in common so we always had something to talk about. During the second year we saw each other a lot more but all we ever did was watch movies and play video games, like I would do with any of my other friends. But that's just the thing, he was supposed to be my _boyfriend_. Couples are supposed to go out on dates and make fun of people other couples together. I never wanted to bring it up though, since I knew he wasn't into all of that kind of stuff. I loved him, but I don't know if I was ever actually _in _love with him. Even though I'd had a crush on him for a while, we never should have dated. We should have just stayed friends. It would have been better that way, for everyone." Trent touches her hand.

"If you don't go for it, you'll never know, right?" he says comfortingly. "Besides, he was the one who initiated it, not you. You shouldn't blame yourself." Tears start to form in Gwen's eyes and she tries to brush them away but they fall down her cheeks anyway.

"Shouldn't I?" she wonders. "Looking back on it, I could have pushed him away, I could have said no, I could've... Everything could be different." Her tears are falling freely now and Trent cups her face in his hands, brushing the tears away with his thumbs. He softly kisses her forehead.

"But this is how things are," Trent says firmly but not unkindly. "Everyone makes mistakes. Some are worse than others but we learn from them all the same." Gwen looks up at him.

"Do you think I overreacted with Courtney?" she whispers. Trent thinks about it for a while.

"That's a hard one," he finally says. "She made a promise to you, so it was kind of a betrayal of trust, but she was also just playing the game, and I don't think she would ever do that kind of thing in real life." Gwen nods sadly and hangs her head as more tears fall.

"She's a very loyal person," she tells Trent.

"Yeah," Trent whispers, still looking at Gwen. She lifts her eyes to meet his gaze. He smiles at her and she smiles back. She puts her hand over his which is still on her face. She leans in and presses her lips to his, but immediately jumps back as if she's been shocked.

"I'm sorry," she says, covering her mouth with her hand and standing up. "I didn't mean... I'm so, so sorry." She walks off.

"Gwen, wait!" Trent calls after her, but she keeps walking.

* * *

"I really have no idea what Geoff was thinking throwing that coconut at me," Courtney complains as Duncan leads her to his shelter. "When I feel slightly less woozy, he is so going to get it!" Duncan rolls his eyes and Courtney collapses onto the bed. "Why are we in your shelter? Why aren't we in mine?"

"Mine was closer, I didn't think you'd be able to handle the extra few metres," Duncan replies.

"I can handle anything," Courtney snaps half-heartedly. She clutches her head where the wooden coconut hit her.

"Judging by the way you collapsed on the bed, I don't know that that's true," Duncan points out. He holds a flask out to her and she eyes it warily.

"What's that?" she demands. Duncan rolls his eyes again.

"Orange juice, just drink it. It'll make you feel better," he tells Courtney. She takes the flask and sniffs it suspiciously.

"You really think alcohol will make me feel better? How did you even get that through customs?" she asks. The pain in her head starts getting worse and she takes a swig from the flask and screws her face up at the taste. Duncan laughs and takes the flask back, drinking a mouthful himself before putting the lid on.

"Feel any better?" he asks. She shakes her head and he hands her back the flask. She skulls the whole thing and wipes her mouth. "Don't get too crazy, princess." She groans and lays down, closing her eyes.

"Tell me a story," she says sleepily. Duncan smiles and pulls the covers over her. He pries the flask from her hands and puts it back in his pocket.

"Once there was a beautiful princess who liked to boss people around. Most of her royal subjects found it incredibly annoying, but there was one man, a criminal, who found it endearing. Thinking no one would miss her, the criminal kidnapped the princess and took her to his lair. Even though she protested at first, she started to enjoy the criminal's lair, not that she would ever openly admit to it. They were both well aware that the princess could escape the lair any time she wanted, since she was pretty badass, but it gave the criminal comfort to know that she stayed anyway. One day the criminal got sick of the princess's bossy ways, so in order to spite her he kidnapped a commoner. The princess was so upset that she left the lair, vowing to never return. The commoner remained for two years, but the criminal found he was missing something, but he didn't know what. The commoner knew, and when she realised what it was, she also left the lair. The criminal had no idea what he had done wrong, so he sought advice from a crazy gypsy. The gypsy made the criminal realise that it was the princess he was missing. He missed her anger and how passionate she got about everything. He missed her bossing him around and how she would kiss him to get him to do things for her. He returned to his lair and lived forever in a pool of loneliness, thinking about how stupid he was for kidnapping a commoner." Courtney smiles at the end of the story, her eyes still closed. She reaches up in search for Duncan's face and he takes her hand and leads it to his cheek.

"Maybe not forever," she murmurs. She drops her hand and Duncan knows she's fallen asleep.

"Goodnight princess," he whispers. He kisses the top of her head and goes back to watch the volleyball game.


	6. Lost

**Chapter Six: Lost**

"If we keep losing people at this rate, there won't be anyone left by the time we get rescued," Harold says to no one in particular.

"So Tyler and Lindsay never came back last night?" Bridgette asks. Harold shakes his head.

"Nope, and Eva and Noah are still gone too," Harold replies. "I think it would be safest if we all just stayed out of the forest from now on."

"Yeah right," Courtney objects. "Most of our food comes from the forest! Not to mention Duncan and I still haven't gotten lost or eaten." Harold shrugs.

"It was just a suggestion, gosh!" he says forcefully.

"We still don't know that they're gone for good," Trent reminds them, still trying to remain positive. "Maybe they were rescued, but Eva and Noah don't want to tell anyone where we are since they hate us all, and Lindsay and Tyler just forgot we all existed. That's possible, right?"

"I guess but it's unlikely," Harold says. Gwen approaches the small group and Trent looks up at her with a smile. She glances at him but quickly looks away, still embarrassed about what had happened the previous day.

"Hey, Courtney?" Gwen says hesitantly. Courtney looks up at her with her eyebrows raised. "Can I talk to you for a moment please?" Courtney rolls her eyes but stands up and walks off with Gwen. They walk until Gwen is sure the others are all out of earshot before she begins talking.

"So, I think I owe you an apology," Gwen says. Courtney lets out a short laugh.

"Oh really?" Courtney asks sarcastically. Gwen sighs.

"I overreacted with the whole list thing," she admits. "You were just playing the game, and even though it kind of hurt to get stabbed in the back, I understand why you did it. You've been unfairly voted off every time you've played the game and you were just trying to make sure that didn't happen again. I'm really sorry Courtney, you're a good friend and I want us to go back to how we were before. Do you think that's possible?" Gwen bites her lip nervously as she waits for Courtney's answer. Courtney smiles at her.

"Of course," Courtney replies. "I miss having a girl friend around, and if you've forgiven me for the whole chart fiasco, I re-forgive you for kissing my boyfriend." She pulls Gwen into a hug and Bridgette and Heather come up to join their conversation.

"Hey guys!" Heather greets them. "What's going on?" Gwen and Courtney let go of each other.

"We're just forgiving each other," Gwen tells her. "What are you guys doing? Are you friends now?" Bridgette shrugs.

"Sort of," she replies. "The only reason we came over here is because Cody and Sierra are having a sandcastle competition with Harold and Leshawna and the guys have started windsurfing again." Gwen and Courtney look over at Duncan, Geoff and Alejandro who now have two windsurfs and are trying to stabilise themselves on the logs.

"Yeah, and Owen is still crying like a big baby over Noah's death so Izzy and Trent are trying everything they can to get him to calm down," Heather adds. She sits down in the sand and the other three follow suit. "So, what's news?" Gwen and Courtney eye her suspiciously, wondering why all of a sudden Heather cares about anyone other than herself.

"We've been on this island together for the past few days, our news is the same as yours," Gwen reminds her.

"I wouldn't be so sure," Bridgette says, and Heather elbows her in the ribs. "Ow! What was that for?"

"All I meant is that I've seen you hanging out with Trent a lot recently," Heather comments. "I wondered if that was going to happen again."

"Why? Are you going to kiss him again?" Gwen asks snidely. Heather rolls her eyes.

"Ugh, please, that was purely strategic," she reminds them. "I'm very happy with Alejandro and I don't ever intend on playing that stupid game again." Gwen and Courtney raise their eyebrows.

"Heather needs friends," Bridgette explains.

"Bridgette!" Heather scolds her.

"What, I'm helping!" Bridgette tells her. "If they don't know why you're being nice all of a sudden they're going to be suspicious." Heather scoffs.

"Fine, whatever," Heather says. She turns back to Gwen. "So, you and Trent?" Gwen sighs.

"I don't know... We have been getting close again these past few days," she admits. "And yesterday when he hit me in the head during the volleyball game he was really sweet and caring. I miss that about him."

"Looks like someone's got a crush," Bridgette teases. Gwen smiles and blushes.

"Well the other thing is that when he was taking care of me yesterday, I did something really stupid," she says. "I kissed him. But I knew it was dumb so I immediately got up and walked away." Heather rolls her eyes.

"Please, that is probably the least stupid thing you've done," she tells Gwen. "If you ask me, Trent hasn't stopped thinking about you since the day you met." Gwen looks at her in surprise.

"Really?" she asks. Heather nods. "Well it probably wouldn't work anyway. Remember what happened last time?"

"That was when you were competing against him," Courtney points out. "Maybe he is slightly crazy, but that side of him only really came out when he thought he was going to lose you if you didn't win." Gwen thinks about this but shakes her head to clear her mind.

"I don't know, we'll see what happens," she says. "Can we talk about something else please? What about you Courtney?"

"What about me?" she asks in surprise.

"Has Duncan tried to put any moves on you?" Gwen questions as if it's obvious. Courtney screws up her face.

"No, thank god," she says. "Why would he?" Gwen gives a small laugh.

"The reason I broke up with him is because he's still obsessed with you," she tells Courtney. Courtney looks taken aback by this.

"Seriously?" she wonders.

"I knew it," Heather brags. "As if he didn't still have feelings for Courtney."

"Whatever, it's not like anything will ever happen," Courtney informs them. "He still hasn't apologised, and even if he did it's not like I could ever trust him again. He really hurt me and even if I still had feelings for him I don't think I could ever go there again." Gwen looks away guiltily and Bridgette sighs sadly.

"How come it didn't work out with Scott?" she asks.

"I don't think we were meant to last," Courtney tells her. "I think my main attraction to him was based on his attraction to me. I'd thought I was over the whole Duncan thing, but seeing him there with Gwen... I don't know, it made me angry and kind of sad that they were so happy and I had nothing. I'd been on a couple of dates since World Tour but I'd had nothing serious. Then Scott came along and he was sweet and he cared about me, which was a nice change. But after making the chart in All-Stars, neither of us tried to contact the other at all."

"Wow, so much drama!" Heather says excitedly. "It's like watching a soap opera!" Courtney and Gwen glare at her but Bridgette shrugs in a kind of agreement.

"I've got to admit, hearing about your three love lives is kind of exciting for me," Bridgette tells them. "I've been with Geoff for four years, and don't get me wrong, I love him, but we don't do anything exciting anymore."

"We'll make sure to keep you updated," Gwen promises.

* * *

Trent and Owen are sitting by the fire when the three boys who were windsurfing join them to dry off their clothes. Owen is hugging his knees and rocking back and forth on the sand, his eyes wide in terror.

"Did you guys have fun?" Trent asks as Alejandro, Geoff and Duncan walk up.

"Oh yeah," Duncan says happily. "Alejandro stacked it so bad! It was hilarious, man."

"Ha, I was only pretending to be Geoff," Alejandro tells him unconvincingly. "I saw him fall off earlier and thought it would be fun if I re-enacted it." Duncan pats him on the back as he goes to sit down.

"Whatever man, just admit it, you suck at windsurfing," Duncan says. Alejandro rolls his eyes.

"What have you been doing, man?" Geoff asks Trent.

"I was playing the guitar to Owen to try and calm him down," Trent replies. "Poor guy's still shaken up about Noah going missing." Owen lets out a loud sob as if to prove Trent's point. Geoff picks up a stick and starts to poke at the fire with it.

"Anyone have any marshmallows?" he asks.

"I'm sure Owen brought a heap of food with him," Trent says. "You could search his bag and see if he brought any marshmallows." Duncan shakes his head.

"Nah man," he says. "I already raided his bag. It's full of chips and chocolate, but there aren't any marshmallows." Geoff nods in disappointment. He continues to poke at the fire and the boys all watch him in silence. Trent clears his throat and the others look at him.

"Hey guys, can I ask you something?" he asks nervously.

"Yeah man, anything," Geoff encourages. Trent hesitates, unsure if he really wants to bring it up.

"So, yesterday when I accidentally hit Gwen in the head with the wooden coconut, I was taking care of her and, well... she kissed me," he reveals. Geoff pats him on the shoulder approvingly.

"All right!" he enthuses.

"That was not a question," Alejandro points out. Trent sighs.

"Right, but after she kissed me she kind of ran away from me, like she was ashamed," he continues. "I dunno, I mean I've liked Gwen ever since TotalDramaIsland, and I thought I was over her since we hadn't seen each other in almost two years, but seeing her again now brought all those feelings back. I just wondered, do you think it's worth it?" The boys think about it for a moment, and Geoff is the first one to reply.

"I say go for it man," he tells Trent. "If you don't try, you'll never know right? Maybe the reason she was embarrassed is because she doesn't want to make the same mistake twice, you know?"

"I think Geoff's right," Duncan agrees. "You were competing together in season one, when she liked you, and against each other in season two when she dumped you. Maybe if you aren't competing at all it'll actually work out." Trent nods.

"Thanks guys, I knew I could count on you." Bridgette, Courtney, Heather and Gwen all walk up to the campfire and sit down.

"Sorry girls, we're having a private conversation here," Duncan informs them. Heather scoffs.

"I'm sorry, who built the fire?" she says. Duncan stays silent. "That's what I thought. We'll sit where we want, thank you." Bridgette takes a seat on Geoff's lap.

"I've missed you," she says in a sickeningly cute voice. She kisses him and they start making out, causing the others to all make gagging sounds.

"Hey Courtney, want to go look for food for dinner?" Duncan offers.

"As long as I don't have to sit here and watch that, I'm up for anything," she agrees, and they head off into the woods.

* * *

Duncan and Courtney walk around the forest in search of food, but after half an hour they still haven't found anything. "We've taken practically every plant from around here already!" Courtney complains. She picks up a weed and inspects it before throwing it to the ground in fury and continuing to walk. Duncan follows behind.

"Maybe we should go deeper in?" he suggests. Courtney whirls around to face him.

"And risk being eaten by bears like the other four? Are you insane?" she argues. Duncan rolls his eyes.

"Come on princess, what happened to the girl who helped me steal Chef's food? The girl who ate all of the ice cream sandwiches and then barfed over the railing? The girl who had fun and did things no one would expect her to?"

"She grew up!" Courtney snaps. Duncan is taken aback by this sudden outburst. In a whisper Courtney adds, "I wish you could, too." She turns back around and keeps walking, but Duncan stays still. He hesitates before moving, but makes the decision to run for it. Courtney hears him and turns around to see he isn't there anymore. "Duncan!" she calls, but he doesn't reply. She silently curses herself for what she is about to do, and runs after him, calling his name.

"If you're so grown up, why are you chasing me?" Duncan calls to her.

"Because as much as I despise you, being in the woods alone is the stupidest decision anyone can make," Courtney yells back. "Unless you're Izzy." Duncan laughs and they continue to run through the forest. Starting to get puffed, Duncan stops running and leans over to catch his breath. Courtney catches up to him and stops next to him. She looks up and sees that they have stopped right near a waterfall. She taps his shoulder and he looks up to see it too.

"Wow," Duncan says in amazement. "Wanna go swimming?" Courtney slaps him.

"No I don't want to go swimming!" she says snarkily. "I want to have a shower. Those baths may be hot but they're so inefficient. Go stand behind that tree, and don't turn round." Duncan groans.

"Aw, come one!" he whines. "It's not like I haven't seen it all before!"

"Yeah but we aren't together now!" she snaps. "Go stand behind the tree!" Duncan does as he's told and Courtney strips down and jumps into the pool. She swims under the waterfall and starts to clean herself. Duncan peers around the side of his tree and watches Courtney as she cleans her naked body. Unable to help himself, he gets up, takes his clothes off and jumps into the water. Courtney squeals and covers herself with her hands then lowers herself into the water so that from her shoulders down is covered by the water.

"Do you have no self control?" she wonders furiously. "I told you to stay behind the tree!" Duncan grins as he swims towards her.

"It may have escaped your notice, princess, but I don't always do as I'm told," he tells her. She backs away from him and ducks behind the waterfall so he can only see her outline. He stands directly in front of it, knowing she's only inches away. Courtney's heart is racing, knowing what's coming next. Duncan reaches behind the waterfall and grabs Courtney's shoulders, pulling her into a passionate kiss. She kisses him back with the same fierceness and the water pours over their heads and runs into their mouths as they continue to kiss each other. Duncan moves them both behind the waterfall to stop the flow but continues to kiss Courtney passionately. She wraps her legs around his waist and he puts his hands on hers, slowly moving them upwards to her breasts. She pushes him away. Duncan looks at her in confusion.

"What are we doing?" she whispers, and she swims past Duncan back to the bank. She gets out, not caring anymore if Duncan sees her naked, and puts her clothes on. Duncan does the same but before he can finish dressing himself Courtney is already walking away.

"Wait, Courtney, can we talk about what just happened?" he calls after her. She keeps walking and he runs to catch up to her. "What was that?"

"It was nothing," Courtney says. "Forget it ever happened."

"I don't think it's possible for me to forget it ever happened," Duncan tells her. Courtney stops walking and looks around, lost.

"Where are we?" she asks. Duncan joins her in looking around.

"I have no idea," he admits.

"Great," she snaps. "Just, great. You've got us lost. Now we'll end up just like Noah and Eva and Tyler and Lindsay." She walks back the way they came, hoping she can collect her bearings if she starts from the start again.

"How is this my fault?" Duncan asks. Courtney laughs.

"You're kidding right? You led us through a completely unknown part of the forest!" she yells.

"You didn't have to follow me!" Duncan yells back.

"This is just so typical of you to screw everything up and then try and make it sound like it wasn't your fault," Courtney retorts. "Can't you just, for once, admit you screwed up and apologise?"

"What are you talking about?" Duncan demands.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about!" Courtney shouts, tears forming in her eyes. "Did you even think about how what you were doing would affect me?"

"Of course!" he says automatically. Courtney looks at him disdainfully. "Okay, well maybe not at the time, but all I've thought about for the past two years was you!" Courtney scoffs and rolls her eyes.

"Yeah right!" she says. "That's why you stayed with Gwen for so long."

"Look, maybe I didn't realise why I thought about you, but I know I did, and I feel terrible about it," Duncan tells her sincerely. "I _miss _you, Courtney. And I know I haven't said it before, at least not sincerely, but I'm sorry for what I did to you. I am so, so sorry, and I'll do anything I can to make it up to you."

"I don't want to hear it," Courtney snaps. "I was always loyal to you. When you started to be friendly with Gwen, I knew I had to look out for you, but I never imagined you would ever do this to me. Even when you voted me out in Total Drama Action, I was still rooting for you. I know I was bossy in World Tour but I was just looking out for you. I didn't want you to leave, and when you did, I wanted you to come back. I trusted you. _I trusted you._" Her tears start to fall and she tries to wipe them away but they keep falling. "So whatever you feel for me now, whatever you felt for me then, just keep it to yourself, because I don't want to know." She walks away and Duncan stares after her as she does. She hides behind a tree and collapses on the ground, letting the tears fall freely as she sobs into her knees.

* * *

"Duncan and Courtney have been gone for a long time," Harold observes as everyone sits around the fire, eating fish. Owen is still upset but he has calmed down enough to be able to catch a meal for everyone. "It's starting to get dark, so I'm guessing they won't make it out of this either."

"Wow, people are dropping off like flies!" Izzy says. "Hey Sierra, who do you thinks going next?" Sierra ponders the question while she chews her fish.

"Basing it off past eliminations, I have no idea," she admits. "Courtney and Duncan usually make it a lot further than this. I would have said maybe Justin or Bridgette and Geoff." Geoff takes this as his cue to leave.

"I need to take a leak," he announces, standing up and putting his plate down.

"I, too, need to use the bathroom," Alejandro says. "Maybe I can join you so we don't meet the same fate as the other six?" Geoff eyes him warily.

"Uh, sure," he agrees. "But not near each other, got it?" Alejandro nods his head once in agreement. They both head off into the woods and leave Heather and Bridgette sitting next to each other. Bridgette takes this opportunity to talk to Heather about what they'd talked about the other day.

"So," she whispers to Heather. "Have you and Alejandro made use of my gift to you yet?"

"Not yet," Heather whispers back, disappointed. "We haven't really had much of an opportunity. Our two month anniversary would have been perfect but neither of us had anything." Bridgette nods in understanding.

"I could try and organise some alone time for you two," she offers. Heather looks at her in surprise.

"You would do that? For me?" she asks. Bridgette smiles.

"Of course! What are friends for?" she says with a wink.

* * *

Alejandro finishes up his business and is about to return to the fire when he hears Geoff talking. Wanting to investigate, he hides behind a nearby tree so that he can see Geoff but Geoff can't see him.

"You mean they haven't arrived yet?" Geoff is saying. He waits for a reply. "Well, yeah I mean that's a relief... Look man I don't know if I want to do this anymore. Trent and Gwen are definitely on their way but Duncan and Courtney... Of course I want it, but... I'm trying my best, man, but it's not easy!... Fine, I'll do what I can." Alejandro emerges from behind his tree and Geoff jumps as he sees him.

"How is it that none of the rest of us can get service, but you seem to be able to have an uninterrupted conversation?" Alejandro wonders.

"I don't know what you're talking about, dude," Geoff says unconvincingly. "I was just pretending to have a conversation because... because I saw Sierra do it and it looked like a lot of fun." Alejandro takes a menacing step towards Geoff.

"I don't know what you're up to, and you may not want to tell me, but believe me, I will find out," Alejandro promises. He stalks off and Geoff breathes a sigh of relief that he wasn't questioned any further.

"I have no doubt that you will," he murmurs.

* * *

Duncan is cooking something over a fire he's made when Courtney decides to come out of hiding. She slowly walks over to the fire and silently sits down.

"It's too dark to try and find out way out now," Duncan tells her. "If we try we'll only end up more lost. Here, eat something." He hands her something cupped in a large leaf. Courtney sniffs it.

"What is it?" she asks.

"Just a soup I made from mushrooms and the water from the waterfall," he replies. Courtney takes a sip and swallows it.

"It's disgusting." They both laugh and she continues to drink it since she's starving and that's all they have. They drink their soup in silence and when they're both done they throw their leaves onto the fire. They look at each other and Courtney smiles sadly at Duncan.

"Courtney, I really am sorry. For everything," Duncan whispers. Courtney nods.

"I know," she whispers back. "We should try and get some sleep. We'll need as much energy as we can get tomorrow if we're going to try finding our way back." Duncan agrees and they lay on the ground. Courtney falls asleep almost immediately but Duncan lies awake, unable to sleep since he's thinking about everything that had happened that day. He looks across the fire at Courtney and sees that she's shivering, even though she's so close to the fire. He hesitates before deciding to go to her side. He lays beside her and wraps his arms around her to keep her warm. At first he thinks she's going to push him away, but instead she buries her face in his chest and puts her arms around his waist.

"Duncan?" she says croakily.

"Hmm?" he hums. Courtney sighs.

"Why did you do it?" she asks. Duncan doesn't answer right away and Courtney listens to his heart beating while she waits for a response.

"I don't know," he says honestly. "All I know is that it was the biggest mistake of my life."


	7. Mourning

**Chapter Seven: Mourning**

"I can't believe they're gone," Gwen says to Bridgette. "I'd only just started to become friends with Courtney again, and now she's gone." She starts to cry as it starts to sink in that she will never see them again. Bridgette has her arm around Gwen and is stroking her shoulder comfortingly.

"I know, none of us really expected them to be the next ones to go," Bridgette says quietly.

"Are people finally going to start listening to me?" Harold wonders. "We shouldn't be going into the forest. It's obviously more dangerous than the one in Wawanakwa and I don't think we should risk it."

"Courtney and Duncan were right about it being a main part of our food source, though," Trent reminds him. "What we really need is something to ward off bears."

"I think it's fine!" Izzy opposes. "I've been into the woods tons of times, and I haven't been eaten yet!"

"Yeah, but so had Duncan and Courtney, and look at what happened to them," Harold points out. "No one's safe. We're better off just waiting until someone rescues us."

"But what if no one does rescue us?" Owen cries. "We've been here for almost a week and we've lost six people! That's like one person every day!"

"Did you ever see the movie 'Castaway'?" Cody asks. "He was trapped on that island for five years before he took it upon himself to escape. Maybe we should do the same?" Sierra hugs him tightly.

"You're so smart, Cody! Not about the waiting five years thing, but about the escaping ourselves thing," she says excitedly.

"Perhaps we should wait it out for a few more days," Alejandro suggests. "That man was on the island for five years, was it? Surely we can spend a few more days here. You have to admit, it is kind of nice not being harassed by the paparazzi all of the time."

"Yes, we should stay here a few more days!" Geoff supports quickly. Alejandro narrows his eyes at Geoff in suspicion.

"I don't know about that," Justin disagrees. "All of this sun is making my skin go a little too golden-brown, know what I'm saying? If we're here for any longer I don't want to think about what might happen to me." Leshawna rolls her eyes.

"You can last a couple more days, hot stuff," she tells him. "Izzy, do you think you could make spears for everyone so we can protect ourselves against bears?"

"Of course!" Izzy exclaims, and she hurries into the forest to start building.

* * *

Gwen and Owen sit next to each other on the beach, not speaking. Since they both lost someone they cared about, they didn't really feel like talking to anyone or doing anything, but they both thought it was nice to have some company.

"Do you think they're happy where they are?" Owen asks. Gwen puts her hand over Owen's.

"Yeah, I think so," she replies. "I think Courtney would've liked to achieve more before she died, but apart from that they're probably happy they don't have to deal with most of the people here."

"Do you think... do you think Noah misses me?" Owen looks up sadly at Gwen, and she gives him a small smile, trying not to cry.

"I do." She squeezes his hand comfortingly. "Do you want to hold a funeral for them? To say our last goodbyes?" Owen nods. They get up and join everyone else by the campfire, who are listening to Trent play the guitar. Izzy comes running out from the forest holding spears.

"Guys, I'm finished making weapons for you all!" she announces, dropping the spears at her feet. "Everyone grab one." They all do as they're told and pick up a spear each.

"Now that we have protection, who wants to come with me to do some foraging?" Leshawna asks.

"Yeah, I'll come," Justin volunteers. Everyone looks at him in shock. "Well surviving a bear attack will be great for publicity. If I get out without a scratch, I'll have modelling agencies begging to take me on."

"Wait," Gwen stops them. "Owen and I were hoping we could hold a funeral for the people who have gone missing, as a last goodbye."

"Good idea Gwen," Geoff praises her. "We'll let Leshawna and Justin do some foraging first, that way we can have some food for the wake." Gwen nods in approval and Leshawna and Justin head off into the forest with their spears.

"I'm going swimming," Heather declares. "Anyone care to join me?"

"I'll come with you," Alejandro says. He stands up and takes Heather's hand.

"Me too!" Geoff agrees. He goes to stand up but Bridgette grabs his arm and pulls him back to his seat. "What are you doing?"

"Giving them some alone time," Bridgette replies forcefully. Heather and Alejandro walk off to the water and the others sit in silence around the fire. Trent strums gently on his guitar.

"Na na na na," he sings slowly. Harold and Cody join in. "Na na na na." Sierra, Bridgette and Owen chime in with "Hey, hey hey," and everyone choruses "Goodbye."

* * *

"Alone at last," Heather says happily, slipping her arms around Alejandro's neck as they go deeper into the water. He puts his hands in her waist but looks at her disapprovingly.

"Should we really be acting like the happy couple we are when some of our friends have just gone missing?" Alejandro asks. Heather scoffs.

"I don't think they're really missing or dead," she tells him. "I think this whole thing was set up by Chris for him to laugh at us." Alejandro ponders this, thinking about the conversation he overhead from Geoff last night.

"Maybe..." he says thoughtfully. Heather looks at him seductively.

"I don't care about that right now," she says. She starts to kiss Alejandro's neck and chest and puts her fingers under the band of his shorts. He looks at her in surprise and she grins at him.

"I didn't think you were ready," he states. Heather pulls a condom out from her bikini top.

"I took a few from Bridgette," she explains. He smiles.

"You want you first time to be in the ocean?" he asks. Heather nods. "How romantic." Alejandro pulls Heather closer to him and starts kissing her hungrily. She jumps into his arms and he holds onto her thighs. "Are you sure you're ready?" he asks through the kissing. Heather nods impatiently and they sink into the water.

* * *

"She'll be coming 'round the mountain when she comes," Trent sings, and the others all join in. "She'll be coming 'round the mountain when she comes. She'll be coming 'round the mountain, she'll be coming 'round the mountain, she'll be coming 'round the mountain when she comes." Trent continues to play but they all stop singing when they hear a loud rustling sound and some cursing from the forest. Everyone gasps in surprise as Noah and Courtney come staggering out of the woods. Courtney is holding Noah up as he limps along. Owen immediately runs to Noah's side and scoops him up. Gwen slowly walks over to Courtney, not sure if it's real, and pulls Courtney into a tight hug.

"Noah! Is it really you? I've missed you so much! What happened? We thought you'd been eaten by bears!" Owen cries. Noah rolls his eyes.

"Relax, Owen, I wasn't eaten," Noah assures Owen. "I was walking through the forest with Izzy and Eva, when Izzy went off to chase a squirrel and a boar started chasing me and Eva. I climbed a tree to escape it and waited for it to go away but by the time it did, Eva was gone."

"So you've been wandering around the forest all this time?" Owen asks. Noah nods. "You poor thing! I'm so glad you're okay!"

"I thought you were dead," Gwen sobs into Courtney's shoulder. Courtney laughs.

"It would take much more than a bear to kill me," she tells Gwen. Gwen pulls away from Courtney and nods, brushing her tears away and laughing at how stupid she feels.

"Where's Duncan?" she asks. Courtney shrugs.

"He was there when I went to sleep and gone when I woke up," she replies.

"Well it's possible that he isn't dead, right?" Gwen worries. "I mean, Noah wasn't so maybe the others aren't either."

"I hope so," Courtney says. "I mean I hate Duncan but I don't want him to die!" Alejandro and Heather come out of the water holding hands and are surprised to see Courtney and Noah.

"Courtney!" Heather greets her. "I knew you weren't really dead."

"Good to see you too," Courtney says sarcastically. "Where are Justin, Leshawna and Geoff?"

"Oh, they're foraging," Harold tells her. Then, he realises that Courtney said three names and he looks around for Geoff. "Where _is _Geoff?" Alejandro realises what it means and sneaks away. He finds Geoff not too far into the forest and listens to his conversation again.

"Courtney just came back," Geoff tells the person on the other end of the call. "So he still hasn't arrived?... I'm not going looking for him!... I don't know, maybe there really are bears!... Well it's better than everyone thinking they're dead... Whatever dude, I'm not putting up with it for much longer." Geoff hangs up and Bridgette walks over to him.

"Still no luck?" she asks. Geoff shakes his head and Bridgette sighs.

"Is it worth it?" Geoff wonders. "Will everyone hate me when it's all done?" Bridgette cups Geoff's face in her hands and looks him in the eyes.

"I know that any one of them would do the same thing," she assures him. "If everything works out the way it's supposed to, they will probably hate us to start with but we're doing this to benefit everyone. They'll thank us eventually." Geoff smiles at her.

"You're amazing, you know that?" he says, and she plants a quick kiss on his lips.

"I try," she says with a wink. "We should be going back now." She turns to leave but Geoff grabs her hand and pulls her back into another kiss.

"I have a better idea," he tells her, and she giggles. Alejandro decides he doesn't want to see anymore and goes back to join the others. He walks over to Heather who is talking to Gwen and Courtney and pulls her away from the conversation.

"Geoff and Bridgette are up to something," he tells her in a low voice. Heather looks at him in confusion and he repeats everything he has overhead Geoff saying. Heather's eyes widen as Alejandro tells her and when he finishes she isn't sure how to respond.

"Well," she says, trying to take in the information. "Isn't this a strange turn of events? For once the people plotting something isn't you or me."

"You're friends with Bridgette now, aren't you?" Alejandro asks.

"Umm..." Heather replies. Alejandro sighs.

"You have been speaking with her more often than usual anyway," he continues. "Do you think that you could find out what's going on?"

"Maybe, but I can't make any promises," Heather says.

* * *

Courtney and Gwen are sitting cross-legged on the sand facing each other as Courtney recounts everything that had happened yesterday.

"I don't know what to do," Courtney says hopelessly. "A part of me still really cares about him but I don't think I could ever trust him again. Maybe it would be best if he got eaten by a bear. That would solve everything." Gwen gently puts her hand on Courtney's knee.

"I know everyone says you never forget your first love, but sometimes you have to," she advises. "If you don't think you can trust him, maybe it's time to let him go. I mean, that's what you tried to do before, right?" Courtney nods.

"You're right. I'll probably never see him again after we get off this island and I'll be better for it," she agrees. "Plus, even though I did start warming up to him yesterday, I still hate that guy." Gwen starts laughing and Courtney joins in as Trent walks up to them.

"Hey guys, nice to see you getting along again," he comments. Gwen smiles up at him.

"We're just talking about everything that happened over the one day I thought Courtney was dead," Gwen tells Trent. "Want to join us?"

"Actually I was kind of hoping I could speak to you alone," Trent says. Courtney raises her eyebrows and stands up.

"I'll leave you to it," she says, and Trent sits in her place as she walks away.

"I'm glad Courtney isn't dead," Trent states. Gwen smiles.

"Me too," she agrees.

"I can't stand to see you sad," he continues, straight faced. Gwen stops smiling and looks into Trent's eyes.

"Trent..." she begins, but Trent interrupts her.

"I know it didn't work out for us the first time, but that was when we were competing against each other. I'm not going to be that guy anymore. That guy was jealous and paranoid and didn't know what you wanted." He takes Gwen's hand and clasps it in both of his. "I still don't know what you want but I _want _to know. When you kissed me the other day I thought maybe you wanted the same things I do but then you ran away and I..." Gwen stops him from rambling by pressing her lips to his.

"You had every right to be paranoid," she tells him. "I mean, look at what happened." Trent laughs nervously and drops his gaze to look at the sand between them. "The only reason I ran away is because I didn't know what I wanted either, but hearing you say all of those things now made me realise that I want to be with you." Trent looks up at her and smiles.

"You do?" he asks happily. Gwen nods and Trent pulls her into a hug. "You have no idea how happy that makes me."

"Oh, I think I have some idea," Gwen laughs. Trent releases her from the hug and looks at her.

"So what do you say? Will you go out with me again?" he asks. Gwen kisses him again.

"Yes."

* * *

Trent and Gwen walk back to the fire holding hands and a loud cheer erupts from everyone as they see them.

"Finally!" Heather says. Geoff and Bridgette hi-five and Cody hands Harold ten dollars.

"You'll be giving me that back when Leshawna doesn't come back," Cody whispers sideways to Harold.

"Shut up Cody, gosh!" Harold snaps.

"Speaking of which, Justin and Leshawna have been gone for a long time..." Bridgette observes. "I really hope they haven't been attacked by bears."

"Relax Bridge, I'm sure they're fine," Geoff says reassuringly. "They've got the spears Izzy made. If any bears try to attack them it won't kill them." Bridgette nods.

"Hey you know what would be fun?" Sierra says. "We should keep singing!" There a few murmurs and shrugs and Trent picks up his guitar.

"Where were we up to?" he asks as he starts playing.

"Six white horses," Sierra provides.

"Right! She'll be riding six white horses when she comes..."


	8. Hunted

**Chapter Eight: Hunted**

Courtney sits silently next to Harold as she watches him build a sandcastle. She's barely spoken since she came back, which has been a pleasant surprise for everyone.

"Do you think they're coming back?" Courtney finally asks Harold. He shrugs.

"Unless their remains are found, I'll keep thinking they're still alive," he replies, digging a moat around his castle. "Alive until proven dead, right?" Courtney nods, but she still looks concerned.

"It's just, you know, I never really forgave Duncan and what if he died and I didn't get to forgive him? I'd feel terrible!" She brings her knees up in front of her and hugs them to her chest. Harold takes her hand.

"Nothing bad has happened to him, or any of the others," he assures her. "And if something does happen, I'm sure he knows you would have forgiven him, eventually." Courtney looks up at Harold.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" she asks. Harold laughs.

"I know we've never been friendly, but I like to be there for people when they need me," he replies. "That being said, I wouldn't do the same for _Duncan._" He spits Duncan's name in disgust. "Can you pass me the flag?" Courtney hands Harold the stick with leaves attached that he'd made earlier. He sticks it in the top of his sandcastle and looks at it proudly. Courtney smiles admirably at Harold's creation.

"It's beautiful," she tells him. She rests her chin on her knees as she continues to stare at the sandcastle.

"I call it Princess Courtney," Harold announces. Courtney looks at him in surprise.

"After me?" she asks. He nods. "Why?"

"I've already made one for Leshawna, and I think you need this," he replies. She jumps on him and hugs him. He falls back in surprise and Courtney sheepishly let's him go.

"Thank you," she says smilingly.

* * *

Trent and Gwen sit on the beach, watching Cody and Sierra play Frisbee. Cody is running backwards to catch it but trips over a rock in the process. Trent and Gwen laugh as Cody picks himself up and tries to look cool.

"I miss this," Gwen says fondly, putting her hand over Trent's in the sand. He looks down at their hands and smiles up at her.

"What, watching Cody make a fool of himself?" Trent asks. Gwen laughs.

"That too," she replies. "I miss this hanging out. As much as I hated being on that ridiculous show, it really brought us all together. And, you know, I had a lot of fun with these people." Trent squeezes her hand.

"Me too." He picks up his guitar and gently strums on it. "Know any good songs?" Gwen grins and Trent continues to strum random chords.

"How about that one you wrote back in TotalDramaIsland?" Gwen suggests. "The one you played at the talent contest." Trent nods and begins to play the song.

* * *

Heather storms up to Bridgette and Geoff, who are making out in their shelter, and taps Bridgette on the shoulder. Bridgette reluctantly pulls away from Geoff to look up at Heather and sighs.

"Yes?" she asks curtly. Heather puts her hands on her hips.

"We need to talk," she demands. Bridgette doesn't move.

"Anything you can say to me, you can say to Geoff," she tells Heather, pulling Geoff closer to her. Heather rolls her eyes.

"We both know that's not true," she says. This time it's Bridgette's turn to roll her eyes. She gives Geoff a quick kiss and her and Heather walk off.

"We're friends now, aren't we?" Heather wonders as they stroll slowly along the beach.

"I guess," Bridgette replies. Heather links arms with Bridgette as they walk and breathes in the fresh afternoon air while Bridgette waits for what Heather really wants to talk about.

"Last night, and the night before, Alejandro told me a little something he overhead," Heather begins. Bridgette's eyes widen.

"Really?" she says in an attempt to be casual.

"Yeah, he said something about you. And Geoff," Heather continues.

"Ha! I bet!" Bridgette laughs worriedly.

"But the thing is, he didn't get all of the details." Heather removes her arm from Bridgette's and turns to face her. "So what's the deal? What are you and Geoff plotting that involves Duncan, Courtney, Gwen and Trent?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Bridgette lies. She turns to leave but Heather grabs her arm and pulls her back. "Ouch, Heather you're hurting me!"

"Yeah, and you're hurting me by not telling your secrets! I know it doesn't involve me, so what the hell is going on?" Heather glares at Bridgette as she tries to pry Heather's fingers from her arm, but Heather doesn't budge.

"Fine, I'll tell you!" Bridgette finally agrees. Heather keeps her grip on Bridgette's arm. "Could you let go?"

"I'm not risking you running away before you tell me what's going on," Heather says firmly. Bridgette sighs.

"Okay, so about a month ago, Geoff was offered a hosting job," Bridgette begins. She tells Heather everything about the plan, and Heather listens intently, not wanting to miss out on any of the information. "Now Geoff has to go through all this just to get the job! It's completely sick, but I fully support him through the whole thing. You can't tell _anyone_, or it'll totally screw it up and all of this hard work will be for nothing." Heather softens her grip on Bridgette's arm and holds both of her hands.

"Are you kidding me? This is amazing!" Heather exclaims. "I've been looking for a project and this seems perfect. I can't believe you didn't tell me sooner. I won't tell, but in exchange, I want in." Bridgette smiles and shakes her head at Heather.

"There's always something in it for you, isn't there?" she says. Heather shrugs smugly.

"I wouldn't get anywhere if there wasn't," she replies. She links her arm with Bridgette's again and they continue to walk until they reach Trent and Gwen where they sit down. Trent is still playing the guitar and is singing 'Wonderwall'.

"... and after all, you're my wonderwall," he finishes. Bridgette, Heather and Gwen all clap politely. "Any requests?" Courtney and Harold walk up and join them.

"How about 'Give Me Everything' by Pitbull?" Harold suggests. Heather scoffs and rolls her eyes.

"Sorry Harold, I don't think I can play that," Trent tells him. Harold nods sadly. "Maybe it's time to stop playing for a while." Alejandro walks up and joins the group. Heather stands up.

"Thank god you're here," she says. "I need to talk to you." Bridgette catches Heather's eye and raises her eyebrows. "What, like you don't share everything with your boyfriend? Please." She grabs Alejandro by the arm and drags him away from the rest of the group.

"I see you've been talking to Bridgette," Alejandro observes when they're out of earshot.

"Yeah, usually I'm more strategic about getting information but I'm getting tired of playing those silly games," Heather tells him. He chuckles.

"I didn't think it was possible for you to tire of playing silly games," he says with a smile. Heather rolls her eyes.

"Whatever, since Bridgette and I are friends now, I was able to pressure her into telling me everything," she informs Alejandro. "Her and Geoff have this plan..." Heather launches into the story that Bridgette had told her before and Alejandro reacts in much the same way as Heather.

"This is all very interesting," he says when Heather is finished. "I wonder why they are doing it?"

"Who cares?" Heather replies. "Isn't this the most exciting thing that's happened since we got together?" Alejandro smiles at Heather's excitement and puts his hand under her chin and strokes her cheek. She puts her hand over his and closes her eyes with a smile.

"You get so invested in everyone else's lives," Alejandro says. "I love that. I love you." Heather's eyes snap open. She looks at Alejandro and he gives her a small smile. "I mean it." Heather jumps on him, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him passionately.

"I love you too," she whispers, momentarily breaking away from the kiss before continuing to make out.

* * *

Noah, Izzy and Owen are sitting by the campfire when the others all come up and join them. Trent lays his guitar across his knees and starts tapping on it like bongo drums.

"Hey, has anyone seen Sierra and Cody?" Bridgette asks, looking around. Trent looks over at where they were playing Frisbee before, but they aren't there. He shrugs and Gwen sighs.

"Two more down," she says, almost as if she's tired of the whole thing, which most of them are.

"Hey Trent we should sing a song!" Owen suggests. Geoff, Heather, Alejandro and Noah all groan. "What?"

"That's what we were doing over there, but no one could think of a good song to sing," Trent tells Owen. Owen puts his head in his hand and leans his elbow on his knee in disappointment.

"What about 'Teenage Dirtbag' by Wheatus?" Izzy offers. Trent winks at her.

"I know that one," he says, and he begins to play. "Her name is Noel, I had a dream about her, she rings my bell, got gym class in half an hour..." Izzy immediately joins in and one by one the others do, too. By the middle of the second verse, everyone has joined in, and when it gets to the last chorus they all belt it out loudly and out of tune.

"OOH YEAH, DIRTBAAAAG," they sing, "NO SHE DOESN'T KNOW WHAT SHE'S MISSING! OOH YEAH, DIRTBAAAAG, NO SHE DOESN'T KNOW WHAT SHE'S MISSING!" They all laugh and cheer as they finish the song and Owen decides then that it's time to fish for some dinner. He leaves the group as Sierra comes out of the forest, giggling like a crazy person, which everyone believed she was anyway.

"Huh, maybe I was wrong," Gwen murmurs to herself, then to Sierra she says, "Where's Cody?" Sierra sighs deeply.

"I don't know," she replies. The others exchange glances of confusion. "I thought it would be fun to go and look for the others in the forest, and we uh... well we got a _little _distracted." She laughs to herself as if she has an inside joke going on.

"So what happened?" Noah asks. Sierra looks at him blankly for a moment.

"Oh, right!" she laughs again. "We were in the forest, you know, doing some very private things-" she giggles "-when I turned away for a second and when I turned back, he was gone!" She doesn't even seem upset, like she usually would if Cody had mysteriously disappeared on her.

"He just... Disappeared?" Alejandro enquires.

"Wait, he was making out with you _willingly_?" Courtney wonders.

"Was there a bear or something around?" Gwen asks.

"You don't think he was abducted by aliens do you?" Izzy questions.

"Did you hear anything suspicious?" Harold queries. Sierra chuckles.

"Wow, that's a lot of questions," she says. "Alejandro, yes he just disappeared, Courtney; what is that even supposed to mean? Cody and I have been married for two years, remember?" Courtney scoffs and rolls her eyes.

"You two are as married as me and Duncan!" she snaps. Sierra ignores her.

"Gwen; I didn't see or hear any bears, but that doesn't mean there was none, Izzy; aliens is a possibility, they might have wiped my memory to forget that they took him. And Harold; no suspicious noises, but I do think there is something very odd about this whole situation." When she finishes answering the questions, she takes a deep breath to collect herself and looks around at the others who are all wearing expressions of either confusion or concern.

"Aren't you even a little upset?" Trent asks. Sierra shakes her head.

"Nope! I know he's close, and still alive. I can feel it," she replies. "So, were you guys playing music again?"

"Uh, yeah," Trent replies. "Do you have a request?" Sierra's eyes light up.

"Yes!" she exclaims. "'The Lion Sleeps Tonight'!" Trent shrugs and positions himself to play.

"Okay, let's do this," he says. He starts to play the chords. "Wimoweh, wimoweh, wimoweh, wimoweh."

"In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight," Sierra sings. Courtney joins in on the next line. "In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight." Trent continues underneath with his 'wimoweh's and Courtney, Sierra and Izzy move on to the next verse.

"In the village, the peaceful village, the lion sleeps tonight, in the village the peaceful village, the lion sleeps tonight..."

"WEEEEEEEEE, WE UM BOMB-BAWAY!" a voice sings, but it isn't someone by the campfire. Everyone turns to see Duncan at the edge of the forest with a big grin on his face, holding his spear with a boar wrapped around it. "Anyone hungry?" Everyone but Courtney stands up and cheers.

"How did you catch the boar?" Izzy asks in amazement. Duncan smirks.

"With a lot of patience and good aim," he replies. Courtney gets up and hurries over to him. He opens his arms wide, thinking she's going to hug him. Instead she starts hitting him with her fists angrily.

"You selfish, inconsiderate, stupid piece of trash!" she yells, still hitting him. "What kind of person leaves someone alone in the woods when people are going missing like pennies down the side of a couch? UGH!" She stops hitting Duncan and storms off. He stands there in shock for a moment.

"Uh... I should probably go after her shouldn't I?" he asks. Everyone nods. Duncan gives the spear with the boar on it to Izzy and hands her his pocket knife. "Skin this so we can eat it will you?" Izzy salutes him and he goes after Courtney. He catches up to her and touches her on the shoulder. She shrugs his hand off and keeps walking.

"Courtney, come on!" Duncan says, still following her. She whirls to face him and her face is stained with tears.

"What?" she snaps. "What do you want me to say?"

"Courtney, what happened?" Duncan wonders. "I thought we were going good. I apologised and everything!" Courtney scoffs.

"You think you can just apologise and everything will be fine? That maybe it will go back to how it was before?" she demands. "You're forgetting that after you apologised I never said the words 'I forgive you', okay? Because I don't forgive you! I still can't trust you and you showed me that by abandoning me in the forest!"

"Come on, it wasn't like that!" Duncan tells her. "I saw the boar there and I wanted to surprise you, so I decided to chase it. I didn't want to wake you up!"

"What, you couldn't have gently tapped me on the shoulder and said 'Hey Courtney, I'm going to chase this boar, go back to camp without me'?" Courtney spits.

"You looked so peaceful, I thought you might tear me to shreds if I woke you!" Duncan retorts. "Although it looks like that was going to happen either way. You know, it hasn't been easy on me either. When I got back to where we'd slept you were gone! I didn't know what had happened to you, all I knew was I had to kill that pig so that I could prove to you..." He stops mid-sentence and his eyes widen, as if he was about to say something he shouldn't have. Courtney ignores this.

"Well if you hadn't left you wouldn't have had that problem!" she yells. Neither of them speak for a moment, and the only sounds are their heavy breathing from yelling so much and the gentle lapping of the ocean's waves. "I thought you were dead," Courtney whispers. Duncan nods.

"I know, I'm sorry," he whispers back. He closes his eyes and leans in but Courtney puts her hand on his chest to stop him. He opens eyes and stares into hers. She shakes her head slowly.

"Don't," Courtney breathes. She turns and walks away and Duncan runs his fingers through his mohawk in frustration before going back to the campfire.


	9. Dust

**Chapter Nine: Dust**

"What are you doing?" Courtney asks Gwen as Gwen lines several logs up in a row. Courtney watches as Gwen rolls another one into place.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Gwen replies, breathing heavily from her hard work. "I'm building a raft." Courtney laughs and Gwen glares at her.

"Oh, you're serious!" Courtney says. "What do you think you're going to do with a raft? Escape?"

"That's the idea." Gwen grabs the piece of rope she's been weaving through the logs and wraps it around the one she just put in place. "I can't take being on this stupid island any more."

"Did you and Trent have a fight?" Courtney asks. Gwen laughs.

"Of course not, that would be so petty," Gwen answers. "I'm just sick of seeing these people everyday." Courtney frowns in confusion.

"We've been here for a week, you've put up with these people, plus some others who are way more annoying, for a lot longer," she reminds Gwen. Gwen sighs and takes a rest for a moment.

"Yeah, and having to spend extra time with them is really getting to me." Trent walks up to the two and plants a kiss on Gwen's cheek.

"Hey Gwen, building a raft?" he says. Gwen nods.

"Yeah, I'm not waiting around five years like Cody said," she replies. Courtney takes this as her cue to leave.

"I'll leave you to it," she tells them, and walks away to the fire where Bridgette, Geoff, Alejandro and Heather are all talking. As soon as she walks up they stop talking. She eyes them suspiciously and they all smile up at her. "Hi..."

"Hey Courtney!" Heather greets her a little too enthusiastically. "We were just talking about... last night's meal!"

"Sure! It was so good to have a change," Geoff agrees. Bridgette rolls her eyes.

"So Courtney... Duncan," she says. She rests her face on her hands as if she's expecting some really good gossip or an exciting bedtime story.

"What about him?" Courtney asks. Heather scoffs.

"You know exactly what about him!" she snaps. "What happened last night? What's the deal? How does he feel, how do you feel? You know, the usual. Spill." Courtney looks startled at the sudden bombarding of questions.

"Um... I don't really know how to answer that..." she says. Bridgette reaches over and takes Courtney's hand.

"We're concerned is all," she says. "You've got a pretty rough history with him and you've been forced together a lot in the past week. We just wanted to know how you were holding up, especially after last night." Courtney sighs.

"I feel like he's making it so much more complicated than it needs to be," she tells them. "Why can't we just be civil to each other? Why does he need to turn it into something else?" The other four exchange glances. Geoff jumps up with an idea and everyone looks at him.

"Where are you going?" Alejandro asks.

"You'll see," Geoff replies. "Hey, Alejandro, can I borrow your suit again?"

"Uh, of course," Alejandro says hesitantly. Geoff hurries off and Bridgette shrugs in bewilderment.

* * *

A few minutes later, Geoff has changed into Alejandro's suit and has rounded up Trent and Harold with their instruments. The three of them clamber onto the log that was used as a stage on their first night on the island and Geoff holds a stick to his mouth as a microphone again. The ten remaining people gather around to see what on earth is going on.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Geoff addresses them. "Welcome to Total Drama's very first open mic, uh, afternoon!" There are a couple of groans, cheers, and murmurs of indifference.

"This is such a great idea!" Courtney says to Heather, who rolls her eyes.

"I thought I was done with singing when we finished World Tour, and now it seems like that's all we do on this dumb island!" Heather replies snidely.

"Trent and Harold here will be your back-up, and for the first performance we have Trent singing 'For You I Will', by Teddy Geiger." Geoff walks off the stage clapping and the others join in. Trent sits down and strums the guitar once.

"This song is for the beautiful Gwen," he tells them. He starts to play the song. "Wandering the streets in a world underneath it all..."

"Trent has such a great voice," Gwen says in admiration.

"You're so lucky to have a guy that would sing a song for you," Bridgette tells her. "Geoff doesn't really do romance."

"Maybe if you told him you wanted romance he would give you some?" Gwen suggests. Bridgette laughs.

"No, he'd probably just stuff it up. I don't mind, but sometimes it would be nice," she replies.

"I'm gonna muster every ounce of confidence I have, and cannonball into the water," Trent sings. "Oh I'm gonna muster every ounce of confidence I have, for you I will, you always want what you can't have, but I've got to try..." Duncan looks over at Courtney who is talking to Heather. Geoff notices him staring and elbows him in the ribs. Duncan turns to look at him.

"She totally still digs you man," Geoff says. Duncan shakes his head.

"No, you didn't see her last night," he replies. "If she wanted me, she would have let me kiss her. She would have pushed me away afterwards, but she would've let me. Last night all she said was 'don't'."

"Don't what? Don't kiss her? Don't try and win her over? Or don't try and kiss her unless you want something from her?" Geoff asks. Duncan shrugs.

"I don't know, all of the above?" he says. "Look, I'm not going to push it. She just wants to move on, I should do the same." Geoff rolls his eyes. and grabs Duncan by the shoulders.

"Dude, you aren't going to get another opportunity," Geoff says firmly. "Go for it now and if it doesn't work out, that's when you let go. She's probably just waiting for you to walk over there and beg her to take you back." Duncan takes a deep breath in and nods.

"Okay, I'm gonna go for it," he says. Geoff pats him on the back.

"That's my man!" Duncan walks over to Courtney as Trent finishes his song.

"For you I will," he sings. Everyone applauds as he takes a bow. Geoff climbs back onto the stage, stick microphone in hand.

"Thanks Trent for that awesome rendition dude!" Geoff says. "Okay, who's next?" He looks around and Izzy jumps up and down with her hand in the air.

"Oh, choose me!" she requests excitedly. She runs up onto the stage and Geoff hands her the stick. She whispers to Harold and Trent what to play. "I will be singing 'Not Fair', by Lily Allen!" she tells everyone. She clears her throat as Trent and Harold begin to play. "Oh he treats me with respect, he says he loves me all the time..." Duncan sits down next to Courtney.

"Hey Courtney, how are you?" he asks.

"Well thank you, and you?" she replies politely. Heather gets up.

"I'll leave you two to it," she tells them. Courtney gives her a look as if to say 'don't leave me', but Heather does anyway and goes to sit with Alejandro.

"Come on Courtney, can't we talk?" Duncan asks.

"We are talking," she reminds him.

"That's not what I meant," he tells her.

"Then maybe you should say what you mean," she says curtly. Duncan sighs.

"I want to make things right between us," he says. She gives him a thin smile and shakes her head.

"Maybe you should have thought of that before you betrayed me." The song finishes and Courtney rushes up on stage before Geoff gets a chance to. She takes the stick from Izzy and tells Trent and Harold what she wants to sing.

"Since I know that Duncan is afraid of Celine Dion-"

"Hey, it's only the standees!" he calls defensively. Courtney ignores him.

"I've decided to sing 'It's All Coming Back to Me Now'," she announces. Trent and Harold start the song. "There were nights when the wind was so cold, that my body froze in bed if I just listen to it right outside the window." Duncan watches her curiously as she sings. "There were days when the sun was so cruel, that all my tears turned to dust and I just knew my eyes were drying up forever." Bridgette and Geoff exchange a look of concern.

"Is she singing this to him?" Bridgette mouths. Geoff shrugs.

"I finished crying in the instant that you left, and I can't remember where or when or how, and I banished every memory you and I had ever made..."

"Okay, this is clearly directed at Duncan," Heather informs Alejandro as Courtney launches into the chorus. "Do you think she's trying to tell him that she's over him?"

"Trying, I don't know if it is working or not," Alejandro replies. "Does she think that simply singing a song will get him to stop trying to win her over?"

"If she does, she's deluded," Heather says. "I don't think he's ever going to give up. Sometimes I wish I could slap some sense into her and tell her just to give him another chance."

"There were moments of gold and there were flashes of light, there were things we'd never do again but then they'd always seemed right, there were nights of endless pleasure, it was more than any laws allowed! BABY, BABY, if I kiss you like this, and if you whisper like that, it was lost long ago but it's all coming back to me..."

"Wow, she has such a good voice!" Izzy says to Noah and Owen. "Not as good as me, I don't think. Did you guys like my performance? I really associate myself with Lily Allen, I don't know why."

"But you were history with the slamming of the door, and I made myself so strong again somehow! And I never wasted any of my time on you since then!" Courtney belts out. Duncan listens to the lyrics and realises why she really picked this song. He walks over to Geoff.

"It's over man," Duncan tells him. Geoff looks at him in confusion.

"What's over?" he asks.

"Are you listening to this song? She's trying to tell me to let it go!" Duncan replies. Geoff sighs.

"She doesn't know what she's on about," he says. Duncan raises and eyebrow and Geoff shrugs with a grin.

"... There were nights of endless pleasure, it was more than any laws allowed! BABY, BABY, BABY! When you touch me like this, and when you hold me like that, it was gone with the wind but it's all coming back to me..." Duncan continues to listen but the lyrics she's singing now seem to contradict what she was singing before.

"Maybe I was wrong..." he murmurs to himself.

"When you see me like this, and when I see you like that, then we see what we want to see all coming back to me, the flesh and the fantasies all coming back to me, I can barely recall but it's all coming back to me now!" Courtney is breathless from belting out most of the song, and she softens her voice to sing the last few lines. "If you forgive me all this, and I forgive you all that, we forgive and forget and it's all coming back to me now." She drops the stick microphone and walks off, away from the stage and the people. Duncan gets up and follows her.

"Hey, are you okay?" he asks when he catches up to her. She sits down in the sand and he joins her.

"Do I look okay?" Courtney snaps, picking up a fistful of sand and letting it run through her fingers.

"What was that about?" Duncan wonders. Courtney laughs.

"I love to sing, you know that," she replies. Duncan rolls his eyes.

"You know what I mean," he tells her. "Were you trying to tell me something? Were you trying to get me to stop chasing you?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I was trying to do," Courtney snaps. She stands up and brushes the sand from her pants. Duncan stands up too. "Now if you'll excuse me." She turns to leave but he grabs her arm.

"But I don't want to stop chasing you," he says stubbornly.

"Duncan let go," she demands, her voice breaking halfway through the sentence. She looks as if she's about to cry again but is determined not to. "I'm tired. I'm tired of this endless game you keep playing." He pulls her close to him and gently presses his lips against hers. At first she leans into the kiss but quickly realises what she's doing and pushes him away again. She takes a few paces back so there's a short distance between them. Duncan sighs exasperatedly.

"This isn't a game for me!" he tells her, raising his voice. "Don't you get that? I'm not chasing you because you're difficult to catch!"

"Then why are you?" Courtney yells back. "Why can't you just leave me alone like we both know would be better for us?"

"Because I'm in love with you!" Duncan shouts. Courtney widens her eyes and stumbles backwards in shock. Duncan looks at her sadly and changes his voice to a whisper. He nods as he realises what Courtney's silence means. "But you don't love me back." It isn't a question. He brushes past her and heads back to the others, leaving Courtney standing stunned.


	10. Reunited

**Chapter Ten: Reunited**

Bridgette walks into Courtney's shelter and gently shakes her shoulder to wake her up. Courtney moans and rolls over to face Bridgette. She slowly opens her eyes and squints up at Bridgette's face.

"It's time to get up," Bridgette tells her. "It's the middle of the day."

"Who cares? It's not like I've got anything better to do than sleep," Courtney mumbles sleepily.

"Sure you do," Bridgette replies. "Gwen, Heather and myself want to know what happened yesterday with Duncan. You avoided us until dinner and then when straight to bed! So please get up and talk to us." Courtney sighs and sits up. Bridgette smiles, pleased that Courtney was so easy to convince. Bridgette leaves Courtney's shelter and joins the other girls to allow Courtney some privacy while she changes. When she has she sits down with the other three and they look at her expectantly.

"Well, what happened?" Heather asks and Courtney sighs.

"We argued, again," she replies. Gwen rolls her eyes.

"Nothing new there," she says. Courtney glares at her and Bridgette elbows her in the ribs.

"Anyway, I told him to leave me alone and stop chasing after me because it was never going to happen," Courtney continues. "He said he couldn't do that and I asked why and he said... he said..." Bridgette, Heather and Gwen wait for her to finish the sentence, but she can't bring herself to.

"He said what?" Heather asks in anticipation. Courtney takes a deep breath.

"He said he loves me," she whispers with a sad shrug. The other three gasp and grin at each other in excitement. "But I couldn't say it back." They look at her with their jaws dropped.

"What? Why not?" Gwen demands. "Don't you feel the same?"

"I don't know, maybe?" Courtney says uncertainly. "It's complicated"

"What's complicated?" Bridgette asks. "You love each other, if you can forgive him and learn to trust him again, shouldn't that be enough?"

"Should it? Even if I do love him, which I have no idea what I'm feeling at the moment, I don't think we could ever work," Courtney replies. "We're just... too different." Heather puts her hand on Courtney's shoulder.

"Is there any way you think you could take him back? A grand romantic gesture or something?" she questions. Courtney laughs.

"That might work, but I doubt he ever would." She sighs. "I hope you got all the information your gossip-hungry ears needed." She stands up and walks away.

"Oh, we did," Heather says as she and Bridgette give each other a knowing look.

* * *

"So I've been doing some thinking and I think I know how you can win Courtney back," Bridgette tells Duncan as she barges into his shelter and sits down. Duncan is carving a piece of wood with his pocket knife. He raises an eyebrow at her suspiciously.

"I don't know what Geoff told you, but I'm staying away from her now, like she wants me to," he tells her.

"No, she doesn't!" Bridgette disagrees. "She thinks that's what she wants but we both know it isn't true."

"Uh, yeah I do," Duncan counters. "You didn't hear her last night. She was pretty clear about wanting nothing to do with me, and if I know what's good for me I'll stay away. For her." Bridgette puts her hand on her chest.

"Aw! That's so sweet!" she says. "Completely wrong, but so sweet!" Duncan rolls his eyes.

"Look, you don't know how it is between me and her," he tells Bridgette. "We're attracted to each other but it will never be anything serious."

"That's not what she said about last night," Bridgette replies. Duncan looks up from his carving.

"Aw man, she told you?" he asks. Bridgette nods. "Well it doesn't matter anyway, she doesn't feel the same." He goes back to carving and Bridgette gently puts her hand on Duncan's shoulder.

"Actually, I think she does," she tells him. His head snaps up to look at her excitedly. "She didn't exactly say that, but I know you could make her realise how she actually feels about you." Duncan cocks his head.

"Really? How?"

"She said just before that she likes big romantic gestures, and I know exactly what you can do," Bridgette says with a smile.

* * *

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Duncan asks dubiously. Bridgette hands him the stick microphone from the day before and positions Trent and Harold on the stage behind him.

"Of course it is," Bridgette replies definitely. "Now get up there and declare your undying love for Courtney!" Duncan rolls his eyes but gets up on the stage anyway. He clears his throat.

"Uh, okay, Courtney, this is for you," he announces. He nods at Harold and Trent to indicate that he's ready. "I'm sorry, so sorry, sorry like a flower after the first frost, and I'm sorry like a mitten that's been dropped, and feels so lost." Duncan glances at Bridgette and she puts her thumbs up. Harold and Trent are playing along and everyone else has gathered around to see Duncan's performance. Courtney stands there with her arms crossed but she has a smirk on her face. "Oops, I really messed up, at least I 'fessed up."

"Actually, Tyler 'fessed up," Courtney points out. "But nice try."

"But I'm sorry, so sorry, sorry like a surfer who's busted his board, and I'm sorry like the band when they played a wrong chord... Oops, I really screwed up, I felt some dude up..."

"Hey!" Gwen protests. Courtney glares at her then turns to Bridgette.

"Did you teach him this song?" she asks. Bridgette grins in response.

"But I'm sorry, so sorry! Court, I really think you rule, you're so cute that you make me drool, and if you give me one more chance, I'll do my happy, happy dance." Duncan jumps down from the stage and walks over to Courtney.

"What are you doing?" she asks warily. Duncan takes her hand and gets down on one knee.

"Courtney, you're the one for me, and I'm so incredibly, wildly, madly, crazily, oh so completely, infinitely, beyond sorry," he finishes. He throws the stick microphone to the ground. "Do you think you could, I dunno, find it in your heart to forgive me... and be my girlfriend?" Courtney looks at him uncertainly.

"Did Bridgette put you up to this?" she asks. Duncan nods.

"I'm so in love with you and I don't know what else I can do to prove it to you," he tells her. "So what do you say?" Courtney smiles and nods enthusiastically.

"Yes," she says. "Yes of course I'll be your girlfriend!" Duncan stands up and pulls Courtney into a tight hug, lifting her up and making her laugh. He puts her down and kisses her passionately, and this time she doesn't push him away.

"I love you so much," Duncan tells Courtney, brushing a strand of hair from her face.

"I love you too," she says back. "I'm sorry I couldn't say it last night. I don't think I realised it until now." They kiss again and the others all applaud, and Geoff and Bridgette grin at each other. Bridgette glances at Heather and Heather nods approvingly. Geoff climbs onto the log stage as Harold and Trent step down.

"I hate to interrupt the happy moment, but now that this has happened, I kind of have something to show- and tell -you guys," Geoff declares. There are murmurs of confusion from the crowd. "Follow me." Geoff jumps off the stage and heads into the forest without checking to see if everyone's following. Bridgette follows, walking backwards and beckoning for everyone else to join them. Heather and Alejandro are the first to go, since they know what's going on. Sierra, Izzy and Owen are quick to follow and the others reluctantly trail behind. When they've all caught up, Geoff begins explaining as he's walking.

"So about a month ago, Chris offered me a hosting job," he tells everyone. "He said there were a couple of other people going for the job but since he was helping the network choose who it would be, he could guarantee me the job."

"And you believed him?" Noah asks. Geoff shrugs.

"The thing was for me to get the job, he needed me to prove how good I was," he continues. "This part is probably gonna make you guys pretty mad... He needed me to get Gwen and Trent and Duncan and Courtney back together." The four mentioned cry out in protest.

"What, so this was all a game to you?" Courtney demands.

"No, it was nothing like that!" Geoff says defensively. "Chris knew you all still had feelings for each other, and you probably weren't going to get back together without a little push."

"Oh that makes it all okay," Gwen says sarcastically.

"You're all happy now aren't you? Sheesh," Geoff points out. They arrive at a large wooden cottage and Geoff pulls out a key.

"You mean this was here all along?" Harold asks. "Gosh! Why'd we have to stay in those crummy shelters?" Geoff unlocks the door and opens it to reveal the six missing contestants, the people from the other plane and Chris all standing in the middle of the room.

"SURPRISE!" they all yell as the others file in through the door. Sierra immediately runs to Cody and squeezes him tightly.

"I've missed you so much!" she tells him, not letting go.

"What's going on?" Owen asks.

"Wow, is this a surprise party! Cool, you guys are the best!" Izzy says excitedly.

"You aren't even a little surprised?" Noah questions.

"No, I knew this place was here. I just thought camping out was so much more fun!" Izzy explains.

"Glad you could all make it!" Chris says.

"Why did you do this?" Courtney demands.

"What, you mean organise the plane crash and keep the cabin a secret from you all?" Chris wonders.

"You mean the plane crashed on _purpose_?" Trent asks incredulously. "We could have died! You could have killed us!"

"And this surprises you because...?" Chris points out.

"What about the awards ceremony? We missed it! I missed out on being Cody's date!" Sierra cries, still with her arms around Cody.

"Yeah, there was never actually and awards ceremony," Chris replies. "Seriously, the Platinum World award? How dumb are you guys?" They all glare at him in annoyance.

"Was all of this being filmed?" Gwen asks.

"Oh yeah," Chris says. "It's all part of Geoff's new hosting gig. See the show's called 'Secret Matches'. It's a dating show where the people being set up don't actually know they're being set up. Isn't it great?" He's answered with a lot of angry and unimpressed looks from the campers. Zoey walks up and puts her hand on Chris's shoulder.

"Can't we all just move past this, forgive each other and start on the party?" she asks. Chris frowns and brushes her hand from his shoulder.

"We'll start the party when I say it's time to start the party!" he snaps. "And that's now. Start the music!" Someone presses play on the radio and everyone starts to mingle.

"Come her, sugar baby!" Leshawna says to Harold, pulling him into a hug. "I've missed you."

"I knew you weren't really dead," he tells her. Cody and Sierra walk past and Harold turns to Cody. "I guess this means you owe me another ten bucks!"

"Technically she didn't come back, you came to her," Cody points out. "So no dice." Harold nods.

"That's fair enough, I guess," he says.

* * *

"Why didn't you come back and save me?" Noah demands of Eva. She rolls her eyes.

"I don't live my life taking care of pipsqueaks," she growls.

"Yeah but I thought we were supposed to be friends!" Noah snaps back.

"Guys, guys!" Izzy says calmly. "Let's not ruin the moment by arguing! Instead, enjoy these delicious kebabs! I've already had like seven!"

"These are so delicious I think I died and went to heaven," Owen agrees. "Maybe I did die! On the island! And coming to this cabin is like going to heaven... Woah." Noah and Eva roll their eyes.

* * *

"Do you think they're mad at me?" Geoff asks Bridgette.

"If they are I don't think it will last long," she assures him. "They're all happy now and that was because of you. If they're mad at anyone it's Chris for organising the whole thing. I'm just glad it's over."

"Me too," Geoff agrees. "Hey Chris!" he calls. Chris walks over to them curiously.

"Yeah?" he asks.

"Since Bridgette helped me out so much with getting the others back together, do you think she could join me hosting the show?" Geoff requests.

"Geoff I don't think..." Bridgette begins.

"You know, I've actually been thinking about that," Chris interrupts. "Heather and Alejandro played a bit of a part in it too, so I'm thinking I'll ask them to make an appearance on the show every now and then."

"Dude, I'm sure Heather would be up for that one hundred per cent!" Geoff guarantees.

"Great, I'll go find them now!" Chris says, and he heads off in search of Heather and Alejandro. Geoff turns back to Bridgette.

"I guess that wraps everything up nicely," Bridgette says. Geoff nods.

"Yeah, I'm glad it didn't take us too long," he agrees. "When we get back we'll be able to get started right away. I'm so glad I'll be able to share this with you, babe."

"Me too," Bridgette replies with a smile. Geoff sighs happily.

"Do you want a drink?" he asks. Bridgette nods.

"Please."

* * *

**Note: Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed this story, it's been a lot of fun! If you liked it don't forget to check out some of my other stories. Thanks again!**


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